My eldest child is due to start school next September.
This week, I got a letter in the post saying that my child will be given a place in our local primary school subject to certain things i.e. send in copy of birth cert and paying money for certain items, being done by a certain date (2 weeks time) and that if these things are not done, her place will be offered to a child on their waiting list (I assume that they are oversubscribed).
While I have no difficulty with most of these items, there is one which I am annoyed about.
For this particular school, which is a normal non-fee paying local primary school, it is mandatory for parents to take out and pay for a personal life insurance type policy in respect of their individual child with a designated multinational insurance company. And forms and payment slips for forwarding to the insurance company are included in the list of things that must be done by the deadline.
Apart from being asked to pay for something which I do not want nor need, I am concerned about the fact that by signing up for this policy, I (my child) will be subject to the usual terms and conditions attached to this type of policy i.e. that the insurance company must be informed of all insurable incidents and must be involved in their resolution. In the unfortunate event of something happening to my child, I do not want a third party, who is conflicted as they also insure the school, compromising my ability to e.g. get necessary medical treatment paid for.
What’s worse is that this insurance provides absolutely no benefit to the child in the event of an incident at school as any claim made will be on the schools own policy and you can only claim once i.e. if medical treatment were to cost e.g. 20k, you will get the 20k from the schools policy so this policy will not pay out – you cannot claim 20k from each as its against the principals of insurance.
I think this sends a very bad message out to parents – that the school is forcing you to deal with a third party insurance company and is compromising your ability to get what’s best for your child if something does happen.
We’re past the deadline for realistically securing a place in an alternative school, so not sure what to do. If I make an issue of this and/or don’t pay the insurance company, my daughter will be without a school place.
Is this something that is common with primary schools now?
This week, I got a letter in the post saying that my child will be given a place in our local primary school subject to certain things i.e. send in copy of birth cert and paying money for certain items, being done by a certain date (2 weeks time) and that if these things are not done, her place will be offered to a child on their waiting list (I assume that they are oversubscribed).
While I have no difficulty with most of these items, there is one which I am annoyed about.
For this particular school, which is a normal non-fee paying local primary school, it is mandatory for parents to take out and pay for a personal life insurance type policy in respect of their individual child with a designated multinational insurance company. And forms and payment slips for forwarding to the insurance company are included in the list of things that must be done by the deadline.
Apart from being asked to pay for something which I do not want nor need, I am concerned about the fact that by signing up for this policy, I (my child) will be subject to the usual terms and conditions attached to this type of policy i.e. that the insurance company must be informed of all insurable incidents and must be involved in their resolution. In the unfortunate event of something happening to my child, I do not want a third party, who is conflicted as they also insure the school, compromising my ability to e.g. get necessary medical treatment paid for.
What’s worse is that this insurance provides absolutely no benefit to the child in the event of an incident at school as any claim made will be on the schools own policy and you can only claim once i.e. if medical treatment were to cost e.g. 20k, you will get the 20k from the schools policy so this policy will not pay out – you cannot claim 20k from each as its against the principals of insurance.
I think this sends a very bad message out to parents – that the school is forcing you to deal with a third party insurance company and is compromising your ability to get what’s best for your child if something does happen.
We’re past the deadline for realistically securing a place in an alternative school, so not sure what to do. If I make an issue of this and/or don’t pay the insurance company, my daughter will be without a school place.
Is this something that is common with primary schools now?