private schools - do you take out the schools insurance?

[mckenzie]

DD is starting a new school after half term and they have a 'School Fees refund Scheme'.

From what i can understand it is an insurance for if the child has long term absence due to sickness, accident etc and for if the school building has to close for some reason, ie an outbreak of an infectious disease.

Is it worth paying I wonder?
What are the general thoughts please?

TIA

I'd treat it like a holiday company offering me holiday insurance. i.e. check the small-print very, very carefully (how long would the infectious disease closure have to go on for before they pay out? A week? A month?) and also shop around to see if I can get the same cover elsewhere.

thanks for the reply cogito. I hate insurance

Is your child very healthy or do they catch every bug going. Check if it is payable after a minimum number of days eg a week? We didn't bother and dd hasn't had a day off sick in 3 years. School only closed for 1 day during bad weather.
Our school also have personal accident scheme which is included in fees

thanks crazycarol.
It doesn't kick in unless the child has been off for 5 consecutive days. I don't want to tempt fate by saying whether DD is healthy or not but suffice to say we've decided to NOT take the insurance. Fingers crossed that will turn out to be the right decision

We get the accident insurance because it's only a couple of quid a term. I think it might be useful if dd1 knocked her teeth out with a hockey stick or broke her leg or something. Maybe that's different from what you're being offered?

Definintely read the small print but I would take out the insurance if the school looks likely to close due to adverse weather in winter months (as was the case with us) or if you're own gets sick for a week or the school has an epidemic or worse if the school closes down (as has been teh case for someone else I know).

For my part, I've taken out Denplan with the school and boy oh boy did they hate me making a claim.... I did tho', I did have a right to and after all I was paying for such an emergency - I think it may have put up their premiums or something!
Good luck