INSET days form a crucial part of teachers' professional development in UK schools. These structured training sessions provide dedicated time for educators to enhance their skills, collaborate with colleagues, and align with school-wide objectives - all while students have a day away from regular classes.
Contents
- What does 'INSET day' mean?
- Why do we have INSET days?
- INSET day tips for Early Career Teachers (ECTs)
- INSET day ideas for school leaders
What does 'INSET day' mean?
INSET stands for In-Service Education and Training, representing dedicated professional development time for teaching staff. Schools typically schedule five INSET days throughout the academic year, with students not attending on these days. These sessions can take various forms, from external speaker presentations and workshops to internal training led by school leaders or interactive webinars.
During INSET days, teachers gather on-site to participate in structured training activities. The day usually begins with a whole-staff briefing where key objectives and priorities are shared, helping to focus the day's activities and ensure alignment with the school's continuous professional development (CPD) agenda.
Why do we have INSET days?
INSET days serve multiple essential purposes in school development. They provide opportunities for staff to work collaboratively, share best practices and develop new teaching strategies that directly benefit student learning. These sessions are particularly valuable for maintaining consistent approaches to teaching and learning across the school.
Schools typically plan their INSET day schedule at the start of the academic year in September, creating a coherent programme where each session builds upon previous learning. This strategic approach ensures that training days are interconnected and contribute to longer-term school improvement goals.
To be truly effective, INSET days should be dynamic and interactive rather than passive listening exercises. The most successful sessions incorporate varied activities, group work, and practical applications that teachers can implement in their classrooms.
INSET day tips for Early Career Teachers (ECTs)
There is plenty you can do to maximise what you gain from INSET days. Here are three tips to help you achieve more with your training.
1. Arrive prepared
Have pens and paper or a device to take notes. It is amazing how much information you have to process as a teacher, so taking notes and referring back to them post-INSET helps you to refocus on your priorities.
Chat through your expectations or hopes for the day with your mentor or colleagues. You might discover that there are additional aspects to the training you hadn't previously considered.
Research the topic beforehand and come prepared with a few ideas or concepts you can discuss or suggest if asked to contribute. Being engaged and enthusiastic from the beginning will enable you to learn more throughout the day. Talk to your colleagues about what to expect and who will be delivering the training.
2. Get involved
Volunteering to help organise a section or lead an activity can help boost your confidence and consolidate your skills. In essence, it's just like teaching or sorting groups in a classroom, so you already have experience with this type of situation.
Leading groups or collaborating with others will also enable you to get to know more people around your school, which is great for establishing your presence and gaining useful connections.
3. Make time for reflection
Life in school is busy. We all make that promise to ourselves to come back to an important idea when we have the time, but often this is forgotten in the hustle and bustle of everyday teaching life.
However, setting aside just 15 minutes the week after an INSET day to action some of the reflection points from the day and then returning to these a month later can help you focus on your objectives and make sure you actually achieve the targets you agreed.
If you're working with a mentor, this can be part of your regular mentoring process, or you can make a pact with your fellow teachers to work together in some allotted reflection time.
INSET day ideas for school leaders
Teachers with plenty on their plate can very easily turn off if INSET day training isn't dynamic. Keep sessions short and active, with opportunities for Q&A or feedback if there isn't an activity to get stuck into at this point in the training.
Try to incorporate a varied set of activities into a training day. If you can add in at least one each of the following at different times during INSET, teachers will be kept on track, focused and engaged in achieving the agreed INSET goals:
- Icebreaker activity that gets people talking and raises energy levels.
- Group discussion with a defined outcome.
- Relevant games that explore key learning priorities.
- Creation of a practical activity or resource to be shared with other groups.
- Ask newer colleagues to contribute to a section of the training to bring in fresh ideas.
- Demos of new pedagogic practices which help teachers to practically understand how to present in the classroom.
Finally, INSET days need to be focused, engaging and active so that everyone feels they can get involved and have something important to contribute. Training is a great opportunity to develop whole school and departmental objectives so that teaching and learning are consistently evolving to meet the needs of all of our learners.
