Why do schools need queue management?

Transforming the lunchtime experience post-lockdown

One thing that is seemingly unavoidable in day to day life is queuing. Be it at the supermarket, post office or dry cleaners, waiting lines happen everywhere, anywhere and to anyone. Yet one place in which queues are in surplus and yet hugely unacknowledged or addressed is in schools. Despite sometimes being as disastrous as in retail, queuing in schools is rarely discussed.

The first contact with queuing in schools happens as students are trying to enrol and stretch their time in education to queue for mealtimes, school trips, registration and more. The biggest offender by far is the day to day slog of mealtime queuing in schools. Long waiting times matched with only a short period in which to eat makes lunchtime queuing something that needs to be addressed and improved for the benefit of staff and pupils.

The age-old custom of waiting in line wastes the average person up to two years of their life, according to a study by Casumo, and although saying goes 'time is money,' time is also time, something which students can't afford to waste. A student's priority is to study, and with a solid queue management system in place that follows strict social distancing rules, pupils can use the time saved for more essential school matters.

What are the results of poor queue management in schools?

A secondary school in London found this out the hard way, as its pupils were shunning food in a school canteen and instead were favouring the option to leave school grounds and purchase their lunches rather than queue for the school meals provided. This kind of 'out-of-gate' spending can mean students are consuming unhealthy foods for lunch, which the school cannot fully control. Unhealthy lunches are one of the main contributors to childhood obesity and poor nutrition in children.

Lengthy waiting times for lunch isn't an issue confined to smaller state schools either and arguably, somewhat worse than the out-of-gate junk food purchasing seen in London. In Neath, South Wales, pupils of a £40m Baglan Bay High School have waited throughout the entire lunch break and had to go back to class on an empty stomach.

What are the solutions for better queue management in schools?

Introducing cashless catering software such as AMI's Transact meal ordering and registration for primary schools is revolutionary in cutting school lunch wait times. Allowing pupils to pre-order their lunch choices via an interactive whiteboard or the teacher's PC enables younger pupils to select their food in a fun and interactive way.

After placing the order, the pupil's lunch choice is sent to the kitchen to be prepared for when they arrive at the dining hall, reducing the need to queue whilst pupils make their lunch choices.

Other solutions to reduce school queues include AMI's ID management system and contactless cards, enabling schools to reduce contact at lunch whilst ensuring pupils abide by new social distancing measures. This software offers real-time database sync from the MIS system, meaning there is no chance of mistakenly missing students, with all applications managed through one central database.

ID management software, including AMI's Identity Management solution, identifies students through their contactless cards to make payments, gain access to areas, reset passwords and much more, saving vast amounts of time and resources during the mealtime rush. Queue management software leads to more efficient waiting times, organisation, and simplified identity management.

By using a cashless catering system and ID management software, schools can generate reports to show what food has been ordered and keep track of food wastage at the click of a button. This functionality gives schools control over the content of their pupil's meals, benefits their budgets (by avoiding unnecessary spending) and allows them to be environmentally sensitive by not contributing to food wastage.

Whilst a more efficient waiting area layout partially solves queuing controversy in schools, which will improve as more schools place ordering and collection points around the school, the core problem lies in queue management. The solution, therefore, is to invest in a queue management system for schools.

It is not enough to say that schools need queue management to ensure their students eat correctly and on time. When social distancing and minimal contact are key, cashless software is crucial to protect pupils and reduce the risk of germs spreading as lockdown measures ease, and pupils return to school.

Visit here to learn more about AMI’s full range of cashless catering and Identity Management solutions.