INSET Days: Meaning, Planning and Practical Agendas

Plan the change in practice first

Choose what staff will do differently before you choose the speaker, activities or slides. For example, a primary team might want to check every learner’s understanding of fractions before moving to independent work. The planning question becomes specific: what must teachers notice, and how will they respond?

Give families the dates and school closure details. Keep these separate from the staff learning plan. Schools do not all use the same dates. A school calendar or the school office is the right source for a family’s arrangements. Staff should ask their employer when they need to attend. Do not assume that the rules are the same for every role. Portsmouth City Council’s INSET guidance illustrates the need to check school-specific dates.

Closures can be hard for working families to arrange. Publish INSET dates as early as the school can, alongside term dates. Say in plain language what the day is for, and give early notice when a date falls next to a holiday. Where the school or a local provider offers childcare on INSET days, signpost it.

There is no single UK-wide pattern to put into a generic planner. For example, a Welsh Government impact assessment published in September 2026 describes ongoing provision for six INSET days from 2026/27. This page offers planning examples, not advice about individual employment contracts or national entitlements.

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How many INSET days are there?

In England, the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document 2025 applies to teachers in local authority maintained schools. It says a full-time teacher must be available for work on 195 days. On 190 of those days the teacher may be required to teach and perform other duties.

On the other 5, the teacher may only be required to perform other duties. The employer, or the headteacher if the employer directs, specifies the days.

Schools commonly use those 5 non-teaching days as INSET days. The same document limits a full-time teacher’s directed time to 1,265 hours, allocated across those days. Academies and free schools may set different conditions, and arrangements in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. Check the employer’s calendar and the relevant contract before planning around a particular number of days.

Design activities around how staff will learn

The Education Endowment Foundation’s Effective Professional Development guidance (2021) identifies 14 mechanisms in four groups. A mechanism is a process through which an activity is meant to work. Saying staff will work together does not explain what they will learn.

Use these groups to examine the whole programme, including follow-up. Do not squeeze 14 separate activities into one day. The EEF describes the evidence for a balanced design as preliminary. A completed checklist does not establish quality or predict an effect on attainment.

Recent practitioner comments raise a useful planning question: how will a shared priority meet different staff needs? On 18 September 2026, Adam Boxer described shared priorities as useful in his school, including for staff already strong in that area. Boxer is Carousel Learning’s co-founder and director of education. In a reply that day, Iain Hall asked for better scaffolding of each priority. These are personal views, not evidence that an INSET format improves outcomes.

Prepare a focused, workable day

1. Identify a need. Bring a small, relevant baseline: an anonymised pattern in work, a curriculum review or staff accounts of a difficult teaching decision. Describe the problem without naming individual learners or ranking teachers.
2. Agree one practice to develop. Replace a broad aim such as “improve assessment” with “use a planned question to decide whether to reteach before independent work”. Check that the focus matters in the subjects and phases attending.
3. Find out what staff already know. Ask which parts of the routine they use and where they need help. Give experienced staff a more demanding example, rather than making them repeat an introductory task.
4. Prepare a clear, accurate model. Show the question, likely answers and the teacher’s next decision. Ask a colleague to check that the subject content is right. Include an example that does not go smoothly.
5. Protect rehearsal and feedback. Specify what the observer should notice. “You waited for everyone to respond, then checked the reason for the answer” is more useful than “good questioning”.
6. Check practical access. Share readable materials in advance, explain unfamiliar terms, plan accessible rooms and provide a way to participate without speaking to the whole group. Ask staff about access needs through existing school arrangements.
7. Plan for every staff group. If teaching assistants and other support staff attend, give them a session that fits their role, such as scaffolding a task or questioning a small group. Avoid a whole day of teacher-only input that leaves colleagues unable to take part or to get on with their own work.
8. Name the owner of follow-up. Reserve a check-in, identify a colleague who can help and agree a modest record of practice. Check that these commitments fit existing workload.

For a larger programme, use the school CPD planning guide. Keep the INSET day’s immediate output small enough to use: one routine, a lesson in which to try it and a way to review the attempt.

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Full days or twilight sessions

Some schools replace part of their INSET time with shorter twilight sessions after lessons. This can keep the school open to learners, but staff arrive after a full day of teaching. Two teachers on X describe each side of that trade-off.

These are personal views, not evidence that one format improves outcomes.

If you use twilights, keep the input short. A brief retrieval task on the previous focus suits a twilight. Protect longer sessions for modelling, rehearsal and planning.

Run the practice, not just the presentation

A facilitator needs a worked example and clear instructions for each rehearsal. Start by explaining what participants are practising. Demonstrate it once, then repeat the difficult moment slowly and explain the decision. Pause for questions before asking colleagues to try it.

In the fractions example, use two equally sized wholes to compare one third and one quarter. Ask which fraction is larger and why. A fictional learner says that one quarter is larger because four is greater than three. The teacher asks the learner to refer to equal-sized diagrams, then decides whether to revisit the size of the parts before continuing.

Colleagues can rehearse the teacher’s response in groups of three. One plays the teacher, one uses a prepared response card and one observes. The observer notes the question asked and the decision made, without giving the teacher a grade. They rotate roles, use feedback and try again. This is a practice task. It does not report what a real class said.

Keep a paper copy of the agenda and examples in case the display or internet fails. If discussion runs over, shorten a report-back and record unanswered questions for follow-up. Check with the group before changing the plan. Avoid quietly losing the rehearsal or agreed break.

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Why staff often find INSET days unhelpful

Staff criticism of INSET days on X is often blunt, and it points to planning decisions. Two teachers describe days that did not help them.

These are personal views, not evidence that an INSET format improves outcomes.

Each complaint suggests a check. Limit new content to one practice, in line with cognitive load theory. Give experienced staff a more demanding example, as adaptive teaching would for any group. Protect time for curriculum planning, and plan a role for every staff group that attends.

Primary INSET agenda: checking understanding in fractions

This fictional Year 4 example runs from 09:00 to 15:00. Staff practise one check-for-understanding routine and plan where to use it. Other year groups would need their own curriculum examples. The times are examples, with 75 minutes for breaks and lunch.

The facilitator should check that the diagrams represent equal-sized wholes. A rehearsal can expose an unclear question before it reaches the classroom. Record that revision as useful learning, rather than treating the original plan as something staff must follow unchanged.

Secondary INSET agenda: a shared routine, subject-specific decisions

A secondary school can share the purpose of a routine while departments develop different examples. A science teacher might check how mass differs from weight. A history teacher might ask learners to distinguish a source’s content from a supported inference. Both need subject knowledge to interpret the response.

Do not judge the history example by whether it looks like the science example. Ask whether each question reveals something useful about the intended learning, and whether the teacher has prepared a response. The deliberate practice guide offers further guidance on focusing rehearsal.

Plan classroom follow-up before the day ends

Ask each colleague to choose a first lesson in which to use the routine. In this example, the team checks in after two weeks. It reviews and adapts the plan after six weeks. These times are examples, not a proven best schedule. Choose dates that fit what staff are teaching and the support they need.

Check both whether staff used the routine and whether learning improved. These are different questions. A teacher may use it each time but find that the question does not reveal what learners understand. That finding calls for revision. It does not call for a success badge.

A supportive coaching conversation can help colleagues examine the decision. For a more formal enquiry, use the existing action research guide. A small classroom trial can guide local practice. It cannot show that the change would cause the same result in other settings.

INSET planning resources

Open the INSET day planner and agenda builder to change the time budget, activities and follow-up. Open the EEF mechanisms audit to examine your planned activities and the questions that still need attention. Each tool includes a worked example, reset and a printable result.

Use the agenda to budget the whole day, including breaks. Use the checklist to check the focus, model, access needs and follow-up. Keep the follow-up record short enough to complete during existing planning or department time.

The EEF mechanism audit asks what activities support each mechanism and what evidence or rationale informs the choice. An empty entry is a question to investigate, not a failed teacher or an automatic requirement to add another session. It may be addressed during follow-up rather than during the INSET day.

Each resource includes a blank template and a completed example. The HTML versions can be edited and printed without JavaScript. Save a PDF of your edited version before closing the page; the templates do not promise to save your work between visits.

What does the evidence say?

Plan how staff will learn and use a technique

The EEF’s Effective Professional Development guidance (2021) groups 14 mechanisms into building knowledge, motivating teachers, developing teaching techniques and embedding practice. The framework helps planners consider what an activity is meant to achieve, including what happens after the training day.

A planning checklist cannot predict impact

The EEF review by Sims and colleagues (2021) examines professional development programmes. Its comparison of programmes does not show what adding one mechanism will cause. Evidence for balanced design across the four groups is promising but uncertain. It does not establish an attainment gain for this sample INSET agenda.

Ask what makes the activity useful

Sims and Fletcher-Wood’s critical review (2021) cautions against treating features shared by successful programmes as their proven causes. This does not show that collaboration is ineffective. A useful planning question is: what will colleagues learn, practise and review together?

Plan follow-up, not just the day

Kraft, Blazar and Hogan’s meta-analysis (2018) found positive average effects of teacher coaching programmes on instruction and achievement, with smaller effects in larger programmes. The studies examined coaching, not INSET days, so they do not show that a particular follow-up plan will work in your school. Follow-up such as instructional coaching, lesson study or agreed learning walks gives staff further chances to try and review a practice.

The Department for Education’s Standard for teachers’ professional development (2016) says professional development should be sustained over time. Treat a single INSET day as the start of a longer programme.

For your plan: make the intended change in teaching clear, prepare a model and rehearsal, then arrange a classroom trial and review. This is a practical application of the guidance, not a tested recipe for a particular school.

Check what changed in practice

The register tells you who took part. A feedback survey tells you what staff thought. Neither, on its own, shows that teaching changed or that learners benefited. Check the planned practice directly. Then look at evidence of learning that fits what was taught and the time available.

The teacher professional development evidence guide provides the wider context.

Before your next planning meeting, choose one teaching decision that staff need to practise and prepare a worked example of it.

Frequently asked questions

What does INSET stand for?

INSET stands for in-service education and training. Schools use designated INSET days for staff training and professional development.

What is an INSET day?

An INSET day is set aside for school staff training and professional development, usually when learners do not attend. The dates and closure arrangements vary between schools.

Do learners attend school on an INSET day?

Usually, learners do not attend on a designated INSET day. Check the school’s calendar or ask the school office about the arrangements for that date. Staff attendance depends on their role, contract and employer arrangements.

How do I find my school’s INSET dates?

Check the school’s published calendar, term-date page or messages to families. Ask the school office if a date or closure arrangement is unclear. Dates can differ between schools, including schools in the same local area.

How many INSET days are there in a school year?

In England, the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document requires full-time teachers in local authority maintained schools to be available for 195 days, of which 5 are days without teaching. Schools commonly use these as INSET days. Academies, free schools and schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland may have different arrangements.

What should an effective INSET day include?

Start with an identified need and an agreed practice to develop. Plan an accurate model, rehearsal, feedback, access arrangements and classroom follow-up. Use the EEF mechanisms as reflective planning prompts, not as a score or guarantee of impact.

Can twilight sessions replace INSET days?

Some schools use twilight sessions after lessons for part of their staff training. Staff arrive after a full teaching day, so keep twilight input short and protect longer sessions for modelling, rehearsal and planning. Check the employer’s arrangements before changing the pattern of training days.

How can primary and secondary INSET agendas differ?

A primary team may adapt a worked example across year groups. A secondary school may share the purpose of a routine, then use department time to develop subject-specific questions and responses. Both need examples that fit the curriculum being taught.

How should we follow up an INSET day?

Agree a first classroom trial, a support colleague and a review date before the day ends. Bring a short, anonymised record of the practice and the teaching decision. Choose follow-up intervals that fit the work; the example timings here are not a proven optimum.

How can we evaluate whether teaching practice changed?

Compare the intended practice with what staff actually tried, using proportionate evidence such as a lesson plan, agreed observation notes or an anonymised response pattern. Separate attendance and satisfaction from changed practice and learner outcomes. A small local trial does not establish a general causal effect.