School dinner money could be consigned to the history books of the 20th century when a new scheme is introduced at a York secondary school in January.

The scheme, at Oaklands School in Acomb, will see pupils using credit card-style swipe cards to pay for their school meals and is aimed at cutting queues and encouraging healthy eating.

Three machines are being installed where children can exchange cash for points on their cards.

Head teacher Michelle Burns said each card would have the pupil's photograph on it and each pupil would have a limit on how much they could spend each day, which parents could change.

If parents wanted, they could send in a cheque for the whole term's meals, and the school could print out a list of what food the pupils were choosing to eat.

The school already had a scheme to reward healthy eating choices with certificates and prizes organised by teacher Pat Nobbs, health education co-ordinator.

Heather Ellis, 12, and Adam Bolton, 11, have discussed the scheme at school council meetings, and spoke to the Evening Press, along with fellow pupils Becky Healey, 12, and James Agar, 13.

Heather said: "Everybody seems to be all right about it. It will be better than using money." They agreed that queues for food would be cut and getting their meals would be quicker.

Becky said: "When we had Christmas dinner we couldn't get in for ten minutes."

But James added: "The only thing that could be a bit awkward is people queueing at the machines."

They said a lot of people were learning about healthy eating in lessons at the moment and posters were going up in the canteen - and the trend seemed to be having an effect.

The scheme is one of several ideas being introduced across York after a survey showed most pupils were turned off school meals because of long queues, lack of menu choice, bringing money into school and lack of seating.

Other new schemes include offering healthy options, extra training for midday supervisors, providing yoghurts, cheese and biscuits and fruit instead of sweets and laying on wrapped sandwiches, burgers and salads at secondary schools.

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