Black Hill and Buninyong primary schools are making the transition to mobile application Qkr to make those payments. 

Black Hill executive assistant Mandy Rhook said the school was chosen to trial the app late last year and continued its use this year. 

The school received an award at a Qkr conference for the fasting-growing regional school for parent take-up of the app. 

“I guess there would be about 35 to 40 per cent of school families now using the app,” Ms Rhook said. 

“Parents can pay from anywhere at any time any of their school expenses.” 

She said it was the most helpful with smaller expenses, including lunch orders.

“Parents can order the food and pay by 9am, and we get a printout of stickers with all the orders. The orders are already sorted and we don’t have to count coins, or bank it. It saves so much time.” 

Qkr is an initiative of MasterCard. Users enter their bank details at the start, and then purchases are made through logging in and a swipe. 

Ms Rhook said the school loved it – it was now a matter of educating families on how to use the app. 

She said many families still made their lunch orders by writing on a brown paper bag and attaching coins. 

“The canteen manager has to go through all the orders, count all the coins and tally the orders to see what they need to prepare. 

“It cuts out children carrying coins to school and maybe losing it, or forgetting to put their lunch order in.” 

She said they also use the app for paying for excursions, netbooks or booklists, and any other school-related payments. 

Buninyong office manager Kath Cassell said the school introduced the app last term. 

“A lot of families are already using it – it makes it so easy for them and for us,” she said. 

“We don’t want to have much cash on premises – and this minimises that.” 

nicole.cairns@fairfaxmedia.com.au