Schoolbags can contain possessions worth hundreds of pounds

You could be left with more than a headache if your son or daughter loses their school bag – you could also find yourself with a hefty bill.

Long gone are the days when bags and cases were full of exercise books, dictionaries and pencil cases.

Today, the contents in a typical school bag can easily be worth more than £200.

About two thirds of children aged between 11 and 14 take mobile phones to school, according to research by insurer More Than, while 10pc of them carry expensive gadgets such as gaming consoles, iPads and netbooks in their bags.

Matt Pernet, of More Than, said parents should consider having home insurance policies that included cover outside the home, which could help soften the pain if their children’s phones, gadgets or sports equipment went missing.

“Today’s back-to-school essentials are expensive,” he said.

“The boom in consumer technology over the last 10 years means that the majority of today’s schoolchildren carry mobile phones and are twice as likely to pack gaming consoles in their bags as they were 10 years ago.

“It is worrying that half of parents don’t have adequate protection against loss or damage to items outside their home, leaving them open to high replacement costs.”