11 Plus Exams Forum

Have any new Year 7 parents had their ParentPay account details yet? When DS1 (now over at SHSG) started at the school 6 years ago, we had already set up the account and paid his locker key deposit by the third week in August, I think, but so far this time neither I nor at least one other parent I know has heard anything.

The locker key is one thing, but now that they have gone over to cashless catering, DS2 is beginning to worry about missing out on a hot meal on his first day .

I received my details yesterday. I couldn't pay for the locker and lunches at the same time. I had to pay for the locker and then go back and do another transaction for the lunches. Hopefully you'll have more luck than me!

MacPac wrote:I received my details yesterday. I couldn't pay for the locker and lunches at the same time. I had to pay for the locker and then go back and do another transaction for the lunches. Hopefully you'll have more luck than me!

Thanks - I'll look out for the post later! I was worried that one of the children - or DH - had picked up post and put it 'somewhere safe' without noticing what it was, but I have been keeping in touch with a friend whose household has just got to be more organised than ours and she hadn't heard, either.

Usually there is a 'pay for more items' function on PP; I signed away over £200 in one go last night for DS1 and DD for meals and trips

First move will be to add DS2 onto our existing account, I think, as I'm rubbish at remembering which password I've used for what....

MacPac wrote:I received my details yesterday. I couldn't pay for the locker and lunches at the same time. I had to pay for the locker and then go back and do another transaction for the lunches. Hopefully you'll have more luck than me!

I received the parent pay details yesterday too and had the same issues, could only pay for locker and then had to add some lunch money separately.

Well, that was all going swimmingly - logged in to existing account, added DS2, added both the locker key deposit and some dinner money to my basket. Started 'pay securely now' - even got all the way to the dreaded 'Verified by Visa' page - then every thing stopped and I got the cheery message, '(1000) Failed to connect to a payment gatewayjava.io.IOException: Connection to gateway failed .

Since I had no problems late last night, I have no idea whether something has gone wrong at the PP end or the bank end. Several logging out and logging back ins and a complete Restart have made no difference.

Those of you who also bank with a certain institution with the place that China retrieved from us in 1997 in its title may understand my reluctance to get on the phone to try to ask whether it might be an issue that they ought to be doing something about...

ETA: Is this what you guys meant by having to pay for the two items separately? I looked again and the locker key had gone through at some point, although I hadn't had the usual email . I really hope that adding DS2 to the ParentPay account doesn't mean that everything now has to be done one payment at a time . The less contact I have with 'Verified by Visa', the better.

That's the exact error message I got. Do the payments for the locker and lunches separately.

MacPac wrote:That's the exact error message I got. Do the payements for the locker and lunches seperatly.

We have three DC at two different schools - payments tend to come in batches, so I will be very unhappy if adding DS2 to the account means that all of them have to be done one by one from now on. I have submitted a 'parent support request' to ParentPay. I hope that whoever receives the email doesn't take my comment that I may be driven to Hara-Kiri too seriously, though .

Have had a reply from ParentPay. The problem is that Caterlink uses a different type of bank account; payments to them are not processed in the same way as payments to the school and therefore cannot be put through at the same time.

Hi.
My DS started at SHSB last week and I'm getting confused by the whole parent pay. Money seems to be going in and out like crazy. Our free school allowance isn't showing and it appears my son has spent £20 in 2 days but the items he's had don't seem to match that unless the dinner prices are horrendous?!?

Can anyone shed any light on this matter?

StephiB wrote:Hi.
My DS started at SHSB last week and I'm getting confused by the whole parent pay. Money seems to be going in and out like crazy. Our free school allowance isn't showing and it appears my son has spent £20 in 2 days but the items he's had don't seem to match that unless the dinner prices are horrendous?!?

Can anyone shed any light on this matter?

Firstly, I would get on to Mrs Barclay first thing in the morning. One thing that springs to mind is that according to a friend's DS, the tills don't always clear the previous transaction fast enough, so one boy pays for two meals etc. I am not sure how true this is - but now you have noticed a problem, I think that I am off to check what is happening on DS2's account...

ETA: just looked and DS's transactions look a bit weird - on Thursday he said he had sandwiches but for some reason PP says something to do with fruit - but otherwise decipherable, i.e. one 'meal' per day and a total of seven pounds 50p spent.