Independent schools

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.