STOURBRIDGE students will soon be able to pay for their lunch without searching their pockets for change.

Redhill School has spent £20,000 updating its dining facilities and introducing a cashless catering system.

The system will allow parents to deposit funds into students catering accounts, to be debited by the pupil's biometric fingerprint scan at the point of sale.

Currently around half of schools across Dudley borough use the system.

Headteacher Stephen Dunster, said a biometric system is already in use in the Junction Road school's library and is expected to be up and running in the canteen by November.

He said: "We are trying to make school dinners better and the reason we are introducing this is in to make things more efficient.

"So far, I am not aware of any adverse reaction, in fact this is in response to requests from parents to make things more secure."

Mr Dunster added: "The benefits are that pupils are less likely to lose cash, parents know their children are using their dinner money to buy nutritious food and there will also be a system to alert staff if students are purchasing food that they may be allergic to."

Dudley's education chief, Councillor Tim Crumpton, welcomed the news: “This technology has been used for many years in schools across the country as a way of efficiently managing the school meal payment process. We understand around half of our borough secondary schools use this technology very successfully, purely to manage dinner payments and many have been doing so for around a decade.

“I would welcome this as it ensures pupils don’t lose money or have it stolen, it removes any stigma associated with free school meals and it ensures children are more likely to eat the food rather than the money being spent elsewhere.”