Select from the Year Group or Form and choose a Date from which you would like the pattern to commence then select click on the Choose tab.
Setting Up Meals for the first time or for a group of new students
In this table, you will be able to assign an individual meal type to one or all students.
- To enter a meal on a day by day basis for each individual child - click the dash the centre of each cell for each day.
- To assign a meal to one or all students for the whole year - tick the check box in the right hand column named Assign All Year.
Once you have selected the students scroll to the bottom of the table and click into the drop down box labelled Assign. Select the required meal to allocate your choice to the selected students for the remainder of the academic year then click Assign.
Setting up meals for existing students
If you have allocated students meals in a previous curriculum year, the table will display the most frequently chosen option for each student each day.
- To enter a meal on a day by day basis for each individual child, click the meal name in a cell for each day.
- To assign a meal to one or all students for the whole year - tick the check box in the right hand column named Assign All Year.
Once you have selected the students scroll to the bottom of the table and click into the drop down box labelled Assign. Select the required meal to allocate your choice to the selected students for the remainder of the academic year then click Assign.
Why does my pattern not display?
When making changes to a pattern, the changes will save successfully, even though the new pattern may not display in this table.
This is because the system takes into account all past meals the student has had, and shows the choice they have had most often for this particular day of the week during the last 12 months at your school.
For example - you have a Year 6 student who has had a 'Hot Meal' every Friday last year, but is now switching to 'Packed Lunch' on Fridays. When you assign the new meal option, the change will register correctly for reports and meal figures, but the Bulk Student Lunches area will still display as 'Hot Meal' on Fridays.
If you had a brand new student who had never had a meal pattern set before, and you assigned them as 'Packed Lunch', it would display as packed lunch, because they have no meal history to take into account.
Even if the display doesn't reflect the new choice, their change of pattern is saved successfully, and you can check this in two ways:
Clicking a students name on the left-hand side of the Bulk Student Lunches page. This brings up a pop-out that shows the new pattern as assigned.
- Head to Admin > Meals > Manage Student Lunches. Here you can check against your whole school what meal has been assigned for today, and future dates by adjusting the date selection at the top.
- To get a full picture of the patterns assigned for your students, you can export the example date from the Manage Student Lunches area and review it.
- Any students that have missing ticks where they shouldn't or a different choice than they ought to will be because their pattern has not yet been adjusted.
- Navigate back to Bulk Student Lunches, click their name in the table and you'll see their pattern is either missing or incorrect. You can then adjust it.
Copy Last Year's Meals
You will be able to use last year's patterns in the new curriculum year by clicking on the button named Copy Last Year's Meals. The process will update automatically once you have selected the button.
Unable to assign?
If you are unable to assign meals to a specific student it may be because they are in a year group (such as -2) where you don't have meals available.
To check this please go to Admin > Meals > Set Up Meal Types and check the availability for this year group, if there is no availability on any meals required click onto edit and update the years assigned.
You may also have a problem setting the meal pattern if the student has a future entry date. Once their entry date is live you will be able to assign them a meal pattern.