Parents have shelled out £1.2billion to send their kids ‘back to school’, and home insurance can protect the gadgets and gizmos that they are taking with them this term, says GoCompare.

The cost of sending the nation’s 10 million children to school for the start of a new term includes the traditional shopping list of uniforms, PE kits, bags, pencil cases, and calculators, but has also come to include more lavish items, such as laptops, MP3 players, mobile phones and handheld computer games.

The average child will have £134 spent on them at the start of the school year, with 86 per cent of parents buying school uniforms, 82 per cent buying new shoes, 66 per cent of children will have a new PE kit, and 65 per cent will be stocking up on stationary.

Of the 1,000 parents asked, with children aged between 4 and 16, eight per cent will buy their child a laptop of desktop computer, and six per cent a mobile phone; half of the children have taken their mobile phone to school, while 20 per cent have taken an MP3 player, 12 per cent have taken a digital camera, and six per cent have taken their laptop to school.

However, 20 per cent of children have either lost, damaged, or had electronic gadgets stolen at school, according to GoCompare’s research,

Commenting, Phil Paterson-Fox, head of home and pet insurance at Gocompare.com, said: “While getting children ready to go ‘back to school’ can be expensive at this time of year, parents are increasingly faced with the prospect of their children packing their school bags with ever more valuable items. 

“While parents will manage the challenge in their own way, it is worth checking the terms of your home contents insurance to know exactly where you stand with regard to items outside the home.” 

© Fair Investment Company Ltd