St Bede’s Catholic School and Sixth Form College, based in Lanchester, is a secondary school and sixth form of 1400 pupils, with academy status. As a catholic school with a strong emphasis on pupil academic growth, the school wanted to implement a system that improved lunchtime service efficiency and time management for staff and pupils.
Reducing administration time and costs
Before St Bede’s moved to CRB Cunninghams’ cashless catering system, the office and catering manager carried out many administrative tasks that took up valuable time, including counting money and frequent trips to the bank.
In a digitally dominated world, the school’s Director of ICT Services knew it was time to move to a fully streamlined cashless catering and payment system, making St Bede’s one of the first secondary schools to do so.
The flexibility of CRB Cunninghams’ software allowed St Bede’s to begin using iDStore identity management solutions and then upgrade to Fusion Cashless while using iDReaders to act as Balance Checkers and Password Management points.
With iDStore and seamless SIMS integration, many previous administrative tasks carried out by the office, catering, and IT staff are now automated, with a user-friendly, responsive, and secure interface for all St Bede’s cashless needs.
Fully integrated cashless solution
Fusion combines cashless catering and online payments in one solution, giving schools complete flexibility with customised menus and real-time updates.
Smart Reports offer actionable insights into live and historical data, such as the best and worst-selling items. This allows catering staff to monitor sales trends, provide more students with their favourite lunches and reduce food wastage through accurate stock management.
Fusion’s integrated system gives school staff complete control over pupil data while ensuring security and compliance.
St Bede’s Director of ICT Services, Andrew Freeman, found that the Password Management integration with the balance checkers ensured minimal teaching and learning disruptions if students forgot their passwords.
Throughout the schools, pupils are close to iDReaders, which allow them to change their passwords via balance checker devices. This frees up IT staff time spent resetting pupil passwords.
The results
After moving to a cashless catering system, lunchtime at St Bede’s is now an efficient and speedy process, with benefits extending to all users:
- Pupils can enjoy their favourite school meals, spend less time in queues and make the most of their lunch breaks thanks to lightning-fast cashless transactions.
- Parents can view their child’s live cashless balance and transaction history through the integrated online payment system.
- Administration, catering, and IT staff work more efficiently with Fusion’s secure, userfriendly interface, which automates many manual tasks and eliminates cash handling.
“As a long-standing customer of CRB Cunninghams for over ten years, we have always found training, support and installation to be of a high standard.
“All staff we work with, including sales, project management, and support over the telephone and onsite, are extremely knowledgeable about the products. Timescales have always been adhered to, while training provides sound knowledge to staff using the cashless catering system.”
– Andrew Freeman
