Catering
School Food Standards guidance came into effect in January 2015, and we are pleased to confirm that our menu from our Catering Provider, Chartwells, complies with these regulations. Uplands Academy operates a cashless catering system and therefore we are not able to accept cash at the tills.
The Autumn Winter Menu 2024 is now available.
The East Sussex Food Tariff from September 2024 is below.
Cashless Catering with ParentPay
In recognition of the busy lives that families lead and the preference for using online services, Uplands Academy operates a cashless system for catering and other Academy items using ParentPay. This includes school meals, educational trips, exam re-sit fees, and booking and payment for Academy performances. 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. ParentPay accounts can be topped up online and parents can also check balances, view historic transactions and account statements.
All parents are provided with a secure online account, activated using a unique set of activation codes. You will be prompted to change these and to keep them safe and secure as your username and password for future logins. If you have more than one child at a ParentPay school (even multiple ParentPay schools) it is possible to combine the accounts to create one set of login details for all children by clicking the “Add a Child” option from within your account.
Students are issued with a six-digit PIN number which they will use to purchase meals in the Café. Students need this PIN to add funds to their account and to buy food. Students should keep this PIN number secure; they should memorise this or put it in their mobile phone or planner as a reminder. At the till point the canteen staff can see the student’s photograph to verify their identity. Certain data will be held on the system to enable accurate operation. This includes the student’s name, class, photo, account balance and meal entitlement. This data is handled under the guidelines of the Data Protection Act and is only used by parties directly involved with the implementation of the system.
Parents of our new Year 7 students will receive a letter in the summer holidays providing details of their ParentPay account activation codes with a unique username and password. Making a payment is straightforward and ParentPay holds an electronic record of your payments to view at a later date; no card details are stored in any part of the system. Once you have activated your account you can make online payments straight away.
Students can check their balance and use notes or coins (except 1p and 2p coins) to top up their account at the revaluation machines. A daily maximum spend of £7.50 has been set for all students - no food above that limit can be bought.
If students are entitled to a free school meal their account will be credited daily with the amount allocated for a free school meal. Students can choose to spend more than the value of the free school meal up to the £7.50 limit, using funds in their account if additional money has been credited. Please note that credit for any under-spend or missed meal will not be carried forward to the next day.
If you experience problems accessing your ParentPay account, please contact our Finance Department on 01892 786563.
Free School Meals
Students who are eligble for Free School Meals (FSM) automatically have their account credited each morning with the full entitlement each day. Currently this is £3.00. Student are encouraged to use this to purchase the two course meal, however there are no restrictions on the items that can be purchased. If the entitlement is not spent during the day, the balance resets to zero, it does not carry forward to the following day.