What was your best ever INSET day?

[Twinkle186]

I am helping to plan and organise our INSET days for the next few years and am desperately trying to come up with ways to make them useful and interesting rather than the dull waste of valuable time (full of INSET bingo) that staff often complain about. We’re planning to have several sessions focussed on sharing excellent practice within the school so that departments can learn from each other and collaborate – we did one of these towards the end of last year and it was really well received.

The best INSET I’ve had was a day run by Paul Ginnis (Teacher’s Toolkit author). He demonstrated loads of practical lesson ideas (rather than hours of theoretical stuff) and, although my department already used a lot of his ideas, it was really interesting to see different ways of using them and it got the whole school thinking more about encouraging independent and active learning.

So, can you inspire me by telling me about your best INSET day?

[MidniteScribbler]

Have a look at some of the seminars that businesses use. We had one a few years ago (was in Australia so can't really give you any details) that was about engaging reluctant adult learners. They tweaked it a bit for us (primary) but it was fantastic. Very engaging. We also had an Olympian come in and he talked about career planning. Again, not strictly education based, but the concepts were sound and it was interesting to listen to.

[BrendaandEddie]

i do think they have to be useful but probably not mundane and ( to bore on again) HOW can they do a one size fits all one.

How about ones according to length of service?

[Twinkle186]

That sounds really interesting Midnite.

Thanks again for the suggestions. Not sure SLT will go for the staying at home ones but I'm definitely going to push for something along the lines of short input (based on school priorities) followed by time in departments to plan/implement. Will look into some of the speakers too. We've got one booked for this year but could be good for next year. Thanks!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Just because you've taught for a long time doesn't necessarily mean that you do/know/adhere to what's considered to be good practice though. The best ones I've seen have been ones where teachers have perceived a need, and signed up to a differentiated workshop - rather than trying to do the one size fits all approach.

[noblegiraffe]

My school has done some INSETs where teachers have presented things, or departments have showcased best practice on a carousel. I've been pissed off on those INSETs because I've been showcasing and never actually get to see all the rest of the stuff. It turns out to only actually be INSET for half the teachers.

[Haggisfish]

Jim smith outstanding lazy teacher was brilliant too.

[ladygracie]

GasStreet - I did that too! My leg rather than ankle but still. No idea what the INSET was about as I was sent to A&E 10 minutes after arriving & had spent the 10 mins trying not to throw up as I was in so much pain.
Last year we did worshops run by SLT & the SENCo. You chose 2 to go to. One was v useful, the other less so. And I'd already seen the other 2 which were fantastic.

[PenelopePitstops]

Seconding those who say dept time is good. Teaching maths means spending too many hours listening to shite about sentence starters that is totally irrelevant. Tailored insets tend to be best. Also if booking a speaker, half a day is enough. A whole day of anyone is boring.

[ValancyJane]

Department time, definitely. What's a priority in Science won't necesarily be a priority in Art! In one school we did something similar to ladygracie where SLT / Teachers did half hour sessions and we rotated around them, some of those were quite useful. One of those had an OFSTED inspector in and that was quite enlightening (well as enlightening as OFSTED generally get anyhow!)

Worst ones involved death by PowerPoint (usually by SLT, ironically sometimes on the topic of engaging learners or differentiation) and speakers for a whole day - after lunchtime you usually loose the will to live!

Once we got to leave half an hour early as well. That was quite nice

[Twinkle186]

Haggis I've got the lazy teacher book and didn't even think of him, thanks!

I've got a few more good ideas now so thanks everyone.

[LaceyLee]

First aid courses for everyone was useful. Also for staff that help in games we did half a day of drills and stuff that we could do with the students which was useful, practical and fun. And department time. Otherwise agree that they are boring and would usually get a grade 4 if they were lessons!!

[slug]

Again FE. 2 really good ones

The first was was a session in using assessment to raise classroom standards, using this book Some truly genius ideas.

The second one was "Yoga at your desk" presented by an external. Again, something I use with amazing regularity, even though I'm no longer teaching.

[junebirthdaygirl]

One thing l hate about insets is how rude a lot of the teachers are behaving in a way they'd never accept in class. Also their negative talk and attitude at breaktime really gets to me. If they don't respect the speaker they can't expect their class to respect them. I wish they'd give the person a chance.

[rollonthesummer]

One thing l hate about insets is how rude a lot of the teachers are behaving

I've never noticed this in any of the schools I've worked in! Are you secondary?

[MrsWooster]

Andy Vass on positive behaviour. if only our school hadn't abandoned everything he suggested and gone to hell in a handcart.

[GingerDoesntHelp]

Maybe set up some different webinar training for each department. Let departments choose the topics as they know better than you what their needs are. Whole school Teaching and Learning insets have only ever been relevant to the humanities and English in the ten years I've been sitting through them.

[sleeplessinderbyshire]

I went to some training on dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities where aids were used to distort the text so we could experience different forms of dyslexia (mirror writing, words running off page etc) and this really stuck in my mind to try to understand what someone with SLD might actually be experiencing in my lessons (I teach in higher education but I sense this would be relevant at any level)

[AdorabeezleWinterpop]

Pie Corbett - fabulous!