One of the rituals of the school year in France is to ensure you hold an appropriate level of insurance cover for your child.

School pupil insurance, called assurance scolaire, is not actually compulsory in France, despite the exhortations from teachers for parents to take it out.

All activities that are formally part of school education in France are actually covered through the school.

Some schools also organise a collective insurance policy for all pupils for extra-curricular activities.

However, where this does not occur certain extra-curricular activities might not be available to your child if you did not hold appropriate cover. Only for such activities can a school insist that your child has cover.

Just what is 'obligatory' and just what is 'optional' is also sometimes difficult to disentangle.

Taking out a policy is not expensive, around €30 a year, so there is need to agonise about whether or not you should do so.

But many of the risks covered by such policies are likely to already be covered by your own house insurance policy.

Thus, if you hold an assurance multirisques habitation you and members of your household will systematically be covered for third party liability insurance, which covers any damage you may cause to others (although with limitations, and excluding car insurance).

If this is the case you may merely need to obtain an attestation to this effect from your insurer and present it to the school.

In addition to the allowing your child to participate in extra-curricular activities (trips), you may also consider that some additional cover over and above the third party insurance through your contract is necessary.

These contracts will offer medical cover to your child above the reimbursement of the costs from the health system, including invalidity cover.

School insurance policies called '24/24' are particularly useful, as they provide a comprehensive guarantee. The policies are widely available on the web, although in the first instance try your existing French insurer.