SCHOOL dinners, once hated by many a child, are now a treat for pupils at Barnoldswick's West Craven High School.

Not only can children listen to their favourite music while they eat, but can also forget queuing with a new swipe card system, which has made paying by cash a thing of the past.

The new state-of-the-art swipe card system allows children to pay with a card instead of cash and is registered directly to the individual child. The amount of money on the cards can be limited by parents each day, week or month and they can be topped up at special machines in the school.

Parents can also give their children cheques to pay into collection units at the school.

Headteacher Arnold Kuchartschuk said: "Being a technology college, we thought it would be nice to launch this new system here."

He added: "It gives the children more responsibility and treats them with a bit more maturity.

"The system can trace pupil's eating habits. If someone has got an allergy, for example, to nuts, this can be put on the swipe card so the child cannot inadvertently buy food containing these.

"We can also get a breakdown of what the children are eating and we could then introduce these statistics into the curriculum and let the pupils learn from these in their food technology lessons."

He added the swipe cards allowed those children on free school meals to feel like any other child as the money allocation on the card was automatic and therefore did not distinguish them as being different from anyone else.

Along with the introduction of the swipe card system, the school's canteen has been totally refurbished and has been decorated with bright colours giving it a modern caf feel with music playing in the background.

Several more tills have been installed to ease queuing.

Although there are all the usual tasty options for the children to enjoy, the emphasis is definitely on the healthy options.

Nicola Hanmer, business development manager with Lancashire County Commercial Services' catering division said: "We are going to set up a loyalty scheme for healthy eating whereby all food will be given a points value and the children who have chosen the most healthy choices will receive prizes."