what is an inset day

An inset day (often written INSET day) is a day in the school year when pupils stay at home, but teachers come into school for training and planning instead of teaching normal lessons.

What an inset day is

• INSET stands for “In-Service Education and Training”.

• It is counted as a school day for staff, but children do not attend and no regular classes are taught.

• These days are mainly used in the UK and some other Commonwealth countries such as Canada and Ireland.

What happens on an inset day

• Staff usually take part in professional development: workshops, talks from external speakers, or training on new curriculum, technology, or safeguarding.

• Time is often set aside for departmental or phase meetings, planning lessons, preparing resources, and doing admin such as seating plans or assessment organisation.

• Some schools split the required time into shorter “twilight” sessions after school instead of holding it all on one full day.

Why schools have inset days

• They give teachers protected time to update skills, share good practice, and align with whole‑school priorities, which is harder to do during normal teaching days.

• They support ongoing CPD (continuous professional development) so that teaching quality and school systems improve over time.

• In the UK, they were formally introduced in 1988 as part of wider education reforms, and are sometimes informally called “Baker days”.

How many inset days there are

• A typical school year in the UK includes around five inset days built into the calendar, when pupils are off but staff attend.

• Schools can choose exactly when to schedule them, so dates can differ between local schools even within the same area.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.