The average bag for a school child contains £400 worth of goods according to recent research from the home insurance provider, Direct Line Home Insurance.

As hundreds of thousands of school children get ready to head back into classes, they are doing so with an increasing value of possessions, which can be lost or stolen.

Forty per cent of school children regularly carry a mobile phone with them, and one in five have an mp3 player in their school bag. Additionally expensive video game players are carried by five per cent of the nation's schoolchildren.

Andrew Lowe, Head of Home Insurance at Direct Line, says: "Everyone knows that children are expensive, but this survey shows how quickly costs can add up these days, when there's more in their school bag than books and an apple for the teacher."

Mr Lowe added: "Many children misplace even their favourite things, so it's inevitable that school basics will get lost as well. It's a good idea to record your child's name inside their books and clothes, as schools often have piles of lost items but can't return them if they are unlabelled."