To think that INSET days are.....

[thismousebites]

basically just another day off?
So, all you teachers out there, what exactly do you do on INSET days?

Training.
Child protection, assessment, teaching and learning etc.
In SErvice Training.

Day off for you.
Mixture of lectures seminars workshops and the rest for us. With timetable, power points, activities...
Depends what the focus is.
It's a training day, which given the amount of whinging about teachers on here is a good thing. We ought to have one a month really, to keep up with all the excitement.

Cleaning, training, report writing, development plans, reviews....We do actually go in to work on those days you know!

Do you not want your children to have the most up to date and well trained teachers? A lot of employers arrange courses to top up training, why should teaching be any different?

When I say cleaning I mean sorting/updating displays! We don't actually dust and polish

Erm as others have said inset days are only days off for the children.

I'm surprised an adult doesn't know that.

Don't get all frothy, it's a bored person fishing for a rise.
Hey OP, become a governor and attend them! That could be lots of fun!

Training on the latest Government education initiative.

That sort of thing.

alisvolatpropiis didn't you know the parents assumed school staff spend inset days in the pub?

We do a load of training, generally loads of meetings, workshops, lectures. Some of them are interesting, some of them are mind-numbingly boring but necessary. I would ALWAYS prefer to be on holiday with the kids (seeing as the number of school days hasn't changed in decades, but teachers now have 5 days of INSET to do outside of those 190 compulsory school days), sometimes I would even rather be teaching my classes (one memorable INSET, I would rather have eaten my own leg than been there)

first aid training
safeguarding training
training on new software/systems
training relating to specific SEN pupils
go on courses at/with other schools to share ideas/experiences
work on targets for school development plan/Ofsted iprovements

and tonnes more

come on OP, try harder, if you actually have kids in school you can't be so unaware surely?

yeh course they are all the lazy sods do it drink tea and dunk all day long

You could always play invisible INSET bingo, you need a like-minded colleague within eye-line who can keep a straight face.

gordy don't forget brunch... It's our heads recent concession to lower budget, brunch instead of lunch and biscuits!

I was just curious seeing as last Friday our school had an INSET day, yet when I walked past the school the gates were locked and the car park was empty......strange.

Perhaps the teachers were attending a conference or course elsewhere.

maybe they where away training - which loads of organisations do ...it's not unusual to go to centrally LEA organised training

We learn how to ruin children's lives of course.

Its no easy task.

They are also unpaid days iirc.

They would have been off at a centrally based location - more efficient on resources to locate training at one single school for - say- five schools or at a central facility that has the necessary equipment to hand.

You would barely believe the pressure on Inset days, OP - so much training vying for inclusion.

Last INSET we had I had to leave my house at 6.30am and travel for two hours to attend a course. I didn't get home until early evening. I'd much rather have been sitting around drinking coffee and gossiping.

Mind you, nice to know that some parents probably thought we were lounging around at home because the school building was shut.

The holidays were made shorter to allow for them, weren't they?

We sometimes have INSET days that are held at other schools in the area. So we get into our cars and drive there.
You could ask the head instead of plaiting clouds into nets for innocent teachers.

They could have been at the local education offices, at another school in their cluster, at the local high school, at outside training facilities, at a local hotel for a big meeting....... The list is endless.

They wouldn't be allowed just to take the day off.