Every school knows the small, everyday admin tasks that quietly consume hours of staff time – chasing payments, preparing banking, and answering parent queries. Many schools already use ParentPay to simplify these processes, but the real difference comes when it’s used to its full potential.
By extending ParentPay beyond meals to cover trips, clubs, wraparound care and wider communications, schools are freeing up days of staff time, reducing stress at busy points in the year, and giving families a smoother, more consistent experience.
The experiences of Chelsea Academy, Barton St Lawrence Primary, and Holbeach Primary show just how much more schools can achieve when they make fuller use of the system.
Chelsea Academy – from underused system to full adoption
Lucian Boyd Harte, Director of Finance and Operations at Chelsea Academy, instantly saw the potential of ParentPay when he took on the role.
“When I joined Chelsea Academy, ParentPay was already in place, but the Academy was not using it to its full potential to maximise efficiency, not only for the school, but for our students and parents too.”
By going cashless, the Academy saw measurable improvements:
“We have seen a significant reduction in administrative time and resource wasted as a result of collecting, counting and reconciling cash payments.”
“There is virtually no need for any staff except the finance team to handle cash as it is all processed online. This saves the finance team countless hours of administration, valuable time which is now more efficiently utilised.”
Fast forward a year, all trip payments and around 65% of meal payments were handled online.
Barton St Lawrence Primary – achieving 100% activation
At Barton St Lawrence CE Primary, the goal was simple: remove cash from school and simplify processes. Maria Smith, School Bursar, says the change has been transformative.
“Since introducing ParentPay, we have achieved 100% activation rate amongst parents which is great. We’re really pleased to have reached the stage where all our parents are paying online.”
The impact was immediate:
“Using ParentPay saves us about 2 days a month, which is great as it means we can put this to better use elsewhere.”
“The end of term is no longer a stressful time… I can log in and view the small list of accounts in debt, then send reminders within minutes.”
Maria says setting expectations early was key:
“The first thing we give to our new intake pupils is an activation letter for their ParentPay account, it ensures they activate their accounts early and get used to the process straight away.”
Holbeach Primary – maximising usage for greater savings
At Holbeach Primary, staff wanted to reclaim time lost to banking and payment queries.
“We wanted to remove cash from our school; collecting, banking and answering queries was costing us a significant amount of time which could be better utilised on more important tasks.”
ParentPay’s integration with existing systems helped streamline operations:
“We selected ParentPay partly because of its integration with our current MIS/Finance system, helping us avoid unnecessary duplication of work.”
To maximise benefits, the school extended its use of ParentPay beyond meals: “We also made sure right from the start that we didn’t just collect income for school meals, but also for clubs, trips, and other extracurricular activity, ensuring we saved as much time as possible and parents had a one-stop shop.”
Parents welcomed the convenience:
“All our income is now stored in the system and totally transparent: parents can pay 24/7 whilst also seeing up-to-date balances… queries are reduced to a minimum.”
The bigger impact: more use, more time saved
Chelsea Academy, Barton St Lawrence, and Holbeach Primary all show the same pattern: the more ParentPay is used, the more benefits schools see.
- Time back for staff: From two full days a month to countless admin hours, schools are reclaiming time to focus on pupils.
- Convenience for families: Parents appreciate 24/7 access, flexible payment options, and real-time balances.
- Trust and confidence: Transparency reduces queries and strengthens the relationship between school and home.
Ready to save more time?
Everyday admin will always be part of school life – but it doesn’t have to be time-consuming. By increasing their use of ParentPay, schools are making payments and communication easier for staff and parents, while freeing up hours each month.
