Independent schools

Protection and wellbeing services built around your school, plus individual pupil cover for fee payers

Your school's insurance and risk partner

We understand that no two independent schools are the same. That’s why we’ll take the time to get to know yours – from its learning style to its culture – before creating an insurance and risk package, and wellbeing services, to match.

Our education team has been safeguarding schools for decades. Today, we work closely with independent schools to provide commercial cover for a wide range of exposures, and a choice of pupil cover for fee payers. Expert risk support, including physical site audits, is also on hand to help make your school the safe learning environment you need it to be.

Commercial insurance for independent schools

We’re not tied to any one insurer, so our advice is truly independent. We’ll work closely with you to find insurance that protects everything you need it to. This includes a full review of your existing policies. Core areas of protection include:

Excursions don’t always go smoothly, so you’ll want a back-up plan. We offer travel insurance for groups of pupils, teachers, parents, and volunteers that covers, among other risks:

  • Lost, stolen, or damaged baggage and personal belongings, including passports and theft of money.
  • Emergency medical assistance and repatriation if someone on the trip is ill, injured or has an accident abroad.
  • Unexpected cancellation or trips cut short.

You may want this when trips aren’t booked with a tour operator where insurance is included. You don’t have to name each pupil, just the number going and one adult lead traveller (and you’ll need at least one adult per ten children). We provide school trip cover for trips lasting a maximum of 22 days.

From trips on cables to injuries from faulty equipment, plenty can go wrong on school grounds.

Public liability insurance covers legal and compensation costs if someone becomes ill, is injured, or dies, or their property is damaged, and your school is held responsible. This includes claims from parents, pupils, visitors, and passers-by – but not employees.

This pays legal defence costs and any court settlements if an employee has a work-related illness or injury and makes a claim against your school.

That could be claims from staff, governors, trustees, trainees, work experience staff, or even volunteers – part-time or full-time. It can also cover loss of income for each day you spend in court dealing with the claim.

A cyber insurance policy can be an important part of your cyber resilience strategy. It offers financial protection and incident response for cyber events. You can also access legal advice and a team of experts to help minimise the financial and reputational damage. 

Typical costs covered include:

  • Cyber incident response costs: IT forensics, legal, breach notifications, and crisis communications.
  • Network security and privacy liability: for management liability in cyber events, regulatory fines, and penalties.
  • System damage and business interruption: full data re-creation, income loss, and extra expense.
  • Cybercrime: including social engineering, theft of personal funds, cyber extortion, and ransomware attacks.

Want to know more? Ask our cyber team.

This covers the cost of rebuild, repairs, or replacements after an unexpected event (such as a fire, flood, or storm) causes damage to your building and belongings. Buildings insurance is for the school’s physical structure, and contents insurance can cover anything from kitchen equipment to classroom furniture. 

Policies can also cover theft and malicious damage, accidental damage, and building subsidence. Key apparatus such as audio-visual equipment, computers, and office machinery can be included, alongside stock, fine arts, sports equipment, and musical instruments.

We can also arrange cover for complex exposures such as grade-listed heritage buildings and rare memorabilia.

Directors’ and officers’ insurance, also called governors’ liability insurance, protects key figures such as members of the school board, trustees, and officers if they are accused of wrongful acts.

These can include neglect, errors, and misleading statements, as well as breach of duty and trust. This could be poor hiring decisions, not using school funds well, or wrongful dismissal, for example.

If claims are made against them (perhaps by the regulator, donors, or parents), D&O covers the cost of legal and investigation costs and any compensation awarded. Bear in mind this is protection for named key individuals; it doesn’t cover every staff member.  

If an unexpected event stops your school from functioning as usual, this covers lost revenue and increased expenses until you’re back up and running. 

The events this covers usually includes:

  • Extreme weather events, such as storms and floods
  • Cyber attacks
  • Fire
  • Electrical failure or equipment breakdown
  • Denial of access to school premises
  • Events nearby impacting fee payer interest
  • Failure of utilities, telecommunications, and internet service providers
  • Death or criminal investigation of a trustee

Extra expenses it could cover includes replacing equipment, training staff, and hiring other premises. 

You’ll have a specified length of time your insurer will support you for a covered event, typically one, two, or three years. It’s important not to underestimate how long you’d need to return to business as usual if the worst happens. We can help you choose the right indemnity period.

If your school is accused of professional mistakes, this covers legal defence costs and any compensation awarded from a claim.

From aggrieved parents to local authority action, claims could be for anything from teachers not following the syllabus leading to bad grades to failure of duty of care for an individual pupil. The type of risks it covers include accusations of: 

  • Negligence
  • Misrepresentation
  • Defamation
  • Breach of confidentiality
  • Data loss
  • Intellectual property infringements

This is cover for your school’s vehicles. So that’s coaches, vans, and grounds maintenance or agricultural vehicles, for example. It can also include occasional business use for staff using their own vehicles on school business.

It’s available on an any driver basis, which means any staff with the correct driving licence can be covered. However, limitations around age and experience usually apply. You can also choose optional add-ons, such as breakdown cover. 

This is cover for accidental damage or breakdown of machinery your school relies on, and any resulting business interruption. This includes moving equipment from one site or area to another, lifts, and plant equipment. It can also include statutory inspection services and paperwork.

Running a business of any type creates a potential exposure to legal actions, and schools are no different.

If you're facing legal disputes or litigation, this insurance can cover the cost of legal proceedings. It can also cover the cost of pursuing a claim against someone else. It's designed to protect you from the potentially high expenses that can result from this type of action.

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Pupils’ insurance

Through our online insurance portal, parents or guardians can take out insurance to protect their children. They can opt in and out of cover, with options that include:

School fees insurance

If a parent dies or is diagnosed with a critical or terminal illness, this covers their child’s fees. It’s difficult to think about, but it happens every day. The charity Child Bereavement UK estimates that in the UK, as many as one parent of a dependent child dies every 20 minutes. 

The school is paid a fixed amount direct (outside of estate administration), so the child can continue their education until they reach 18 or leave school. 

Pupils’ personal accident insurance

This provides protection for pupils if they are seriously injured, develop a permanent disability, or die, through sport or other school activities. Parents can choose from three levels, with cover amounts from £100,000 to £1m, and dental cover included across the board.

Pupil absence insurance

If a student is out of school for an extended period due to ill-health or injury, this lets fee payers claim the fees back from the insurer for the missed period of term. This means financial security for your school and parents.

Personal possessions insurance

This insures against damage, loss, and theft of students’ belongings. It can include laptops, bicycles, musical instruments, sports and art equipment, and may be especially useful for boarders.

Want to know more? Download our brochure.

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Easy policy management

Our online portal makes it a breeze for parents and independent schools to manage their insurance online. 

✓ Let fee payers opt in and out of cover, update and see policy details, and make claims. 
✓ Manage admin tasks like collating applications and completing spreadsheets. 
✓ Earn revenue if parents buy optional cover through this platform.  
✓ Access the shared portal via desktop or mobile, 24/7.

We're also passionate about supporting parents and guardians to guide their child through the challenges that can come with growing up. That's why, through the Howden Parent Portal, they can call a confidential parent-guardian 24/7 helpline. This lets them connect with qualified counsellors with specialist knowledge of young people’s wellbeing, day or night.

Pupil wellbeing services

We know that mental health support resources for pupils can be hard to access. That’s why we’ve developed a pupil assistance programme with independent health and wellbeing specialist, Health Assured.

It provides young people aged 11 to 18 years and their parents, guardians, pastoral staff, and teachers with access to wellbeing support and guidance on mental health issues. Wellbeing packages are modular to suit your school, and can include: 

  • Mental health clinical support for pupils aged 11 to 18
  • 24/7 counselling helpline for pupils aged 16 to 18 
  • 24/7 caregiver helpline for teachers, pastoral staff, parents, and guardians
  • Certified youth mental health first-aid training for those who work with, or support young people
  • Digital cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) platform for caregivers and pupils

Learn more about our Pupil Assistance Programme.

Commitment to your staff

Attracting and keeping talent can be a challenge for any business, and schools are no different. Our employee benefits can help show you are committed to helping staff look after their financial, mental, and physical wellbeing. From our employee assistance programme to life assurance, choose the benefits that suit your school, staff, and budget.

When a young person feels empowered to speak up, there’s someone they can talk to who can support them with whatever they need.
Kayleigh Frost, Head of Clinical Support, Health Assured

Risk management support for schools

Keeping pupils and staff safe and managing a school’s complex risks can be daunting and time-consuming. Our expert team is ready to help you manage your risks in compliance with the relevant legislation. This can include acting annually as one of your competent persons. 

We can help enhance and continually improve your safety management systems through:

  • Risk consultancy surveys, including an overall ‘health check’, health and safety audit, fire risk assessment, and physical security audit.
  • Policy document creation, including health and safety, fire, and security risk assessment documents.
  • Online compliance tool to manage your estates and assets, statutory reporting, and staff training. Also includes a contractor area so you can track external suppliers.

Along with making your school a safe, compliant space, having a robust, formalised risk strategy can help prevent situations that lead to insurance claims. It could also help reduce your insurance premiums.

Learn more about our risk management services.

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Two school children walking out the front door, carrying a coat and bags

What can we do to support young people's mental health?

In this webinar, our panel offers expert insights into the most pressing concerns for young people's mental health. They also look at your duties to staff and pupils, and the benefits of taking a holistic approach to school wellbeing.

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Independent schools insurance

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Independent schools insurance FAQs

This could range from employers’ liability (a legal requirement) and motor insurance for your minibuses, to cyber cover and professional indemnity. You may also want to provide parents and fee payers with an easy way to buy optional pupils’ insurance, such as cover for pupils’ belongings. 

There is a lot of choice, so the best way to decide which insurance you need is to work closely with an independent broker. We can help advise you on the risks you need to consider, and which insurance can help mitigate these, with your school’s budget in mind.
 

Pupils’ insurance, such as cover for school fees, personal possessions, and injury, offers parents the reassurance that if the unexpected happens they are financially protected. 

Using our portal designed specifically for independent schools and fee payers, parents can easily opt in and out of a range of cover for their children. What’s more, schools can earn revenue when parents buy optional insurance through the portal.

If a child’s school fees rely on one parent’s income, school fees insurance could be worth considering. This means if they (or their spouse) dies or is diagnosed with a critical or terminal illness, their child can continue their education uninterrupted. 

Parents invest a lot in their child’s education. The average boarding school fee in the UK is £14,153 a term, according to the 2024 Independent Schools Council survey (with boarding school day fees averaging at £7,975 a term). For a small amount each month, you’ll know that future school fees will be covered if the worst happens.

Students’ personal possessions aren’t usually covered by the school’s contents insurance, which typically only protects the school’s belongings. So if pupils’ personal belongings are lost, damaged or stolen, schools are not usually liable. 

Parents and fee payers can instead take out personal possessions insurance. This covers pupils’ property such as laptops, phones, jewellery, bikes, and musical instruments.

A school’s travel insurance policy may include lost, stolen, or damaged personal items on a school trip, but there may be restrictions on what’s covered. If in doubt, check the school’s policy documents, or ask your broker or insurer.

Our health and safety audit gives you a baseline of where your risk management stands. We’ll visit your school and cover:

  • Health and safety management such as policies, training, and risk assessments.
  • Premises and grounds statutory duties.
  • Domestic and boarding premises (if applicable).
  • Landscaping and maintenance (including plant and equipment).
  • Subject-specific areas, such as art and design, design and technology, educational visits, food technology, medical, early years, physical education, and science.