At Leigh Academy Minster, we believe that strong communication between the academy and home is essential for student success. To ensure parents are well-informed and can easily manage academy-related tasks, we use three core systems: My Child at School (MCAS), ParentPay, and a Biometric Recognition System.
My Child at School (MCAS)
The communication between the academy and home is a vital component in ensuring your child has an exceptional learning experience at LAM, with the ability for families and their child’s college to share key information about a student crucial to this.
To support this, Leigh Academy Minster operates My Child at School (MCAS), a system that is linked to our main operating system to provide you with the key information about your child on a day-to-day basis.
MCAS allows you as a parent to view the following information about your child:
- Announcements and direct messages
- Assessments
- Classes
- Timetable
ParentPay
As part of our commitment to providing all of our students with an outstanding academy environment, we will be offering a comprehensive meal service at breakfast, break time, and lunchtime through our catering provider, Cucina. This service will feature a range of options created on-site by our academy chef and restaurant team. You can view our Catering and Menus on the link below:
Leigh Academy Minster is a cashless academy, and students will be unable to pay for food at break or lunchtime using cash. Instead, we use a system called ParentPay.
ParentPay is the cashless system that Leigh Academies Trust uses for any payments to the academy, ranging from trips to food from the restaurant. Therefore, every parent/carer needs to ensure that they register their account. ParentPay offers you the freedom to make payments whenever and wherever you like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—safe in the knowledge that the technology used is of the highest internet security available.
Making a payment is straightforward, and ParentPay holds a payment history for you to view at a later date. Once you have activated your account, you can make online payments straight away.
You will be able to check your child’s balance online and also see what items they purchase each day from the academy’s restaurant. Your child will also be able to see the balance of their account when paying for items at the till.
Pupils entitled to Free School Meals
The system works exactly the same for all pupils, whether they pay or have a free school meal. All pupils have their own account and use it in exactly the same way, regardless of whether they are on free school meals or not. The amount allocated for free school meals will simply be entered into the system by the software daily. The system will then allow the required cash amount for each individual pupil to be added to their current account balance.
Parents/carers can also add extra funds to their child’s account via ParentPay. This enables a greater daily spend on school dinners than is allocated by their free meal allowance. As the free school meal allowance can only be spent on a school dinner, extra funds added into the system can be used for break time snacks.
You can view more information about Free School Meals on the link below:
Biometric System
We use a biometric image system for students to pay for food and refreshments in the academy’s restaurant. This increases the speed at which pupils can purchase their food and supports the academy in its overall aim to be as cashless as possible. The system links directly with our online payment system, ParentPay.
The biometric recognition system works by analysing skin patterns on the finger or thumb. During the enrolment process, the software captures a digital signature of your child’s finger or thumb, which is then broken down into data points, similar to reference points on a map. As only specific data points are stored, the system is safe and secure and would be of no use to anyone except for the purposes for which it is designed at the academy.
Students with parental consent will provide their biometric information during their first few days at LAM. Students without consent will be issued with a PIN code.