What are INSET days? A parent's guide (2026/27)
Five days a year, your child's school shuts and you scramble for childcare. Here's what INSET days actually are, why they exist, and how to know yours well ahead of time.
INSET days (In-Service Training days) are days schools close to pupils so staff can train. State schools in England get 5 per year. Your school sets its own dates and must publish them in advance.
What INSET days are
INSET stands for IN-service Education and Training. They're full school days set aside for staff development rather than teaching, so pupils stay home while teachers are in. You'll also hear them called Baker days (after Kenneth Baker, the Education Secretary who introduced them in 1988) or simply staff training days or teacher training days.
The key thing to hold onto as a parent: an INSET day is a normal working day for staff, but a non-pupil day for children. It isn't a holiday the school has awarded itself. It's paid training time built into the school year.
Why schools have them
Teaching doesn't stand still, and neither does the job around it. INSET days give schools protected time to do the things that are hard to fit around a full timetable:
- Safeguarding and first-aid training that has to be refreshed every year
- Rolling out a new curriculum, assessment system or reading scheme
- Whole-staff planning, moderation and standardising how work is marked
- SEND, behaviour and wellbeing training
- Preparing classrooms and systems before a new term begins
Done well, these days are part of why the teaching your child gets stays consistent and up to date. They're an investment in the staff, not a day off.
How many INSET days there are
In England, the school year is 195 days: 190 days when pupils must attend, plus 5 INSET days for staff training. That five-day figure is set nationally and is the number most parents mean when they say "INSET day".
The rest of the UK works differently, which trips up a lot of families who move or have relatives elsewhere:
- Scotland typically has 5 in-service days, but these are agreed locally and terminology and timing vary by council.
- Wales schools also have 5 INSET days, set by the local authority or governing body.
- Northern Ireland uses a different structure again, with several exceptional closure days for staff development.
Academies and independent schools aren't bound by the same rules and can set their own number and pattern. That's another reason two schools in the same town rarely close on the same day.
| Also called | Baker days · staff / teacher training days |
|---|---|
| What INSET stands for | IN-Service Education and Training |
| Number per year (England) | 5 |
| Who sets the dates | The school or academy trust |
| Are pupils in school? | No, staff only |
| Published in advance? | Yes, usually before the school year starts |
| Rest of UK | Scotland & Wales also 5; Northern Ireland differs |
When INSET days usually fall
There's no national calendar, and each school chooses its own, but there are common patterns. Schools often place INSET days:
- On the first day or two of the September term, before pupils return
- Bolted onto the start or end of a half-term break, creating a longer weekend
- On the last Friday of a term
- Occasionally as a standalone mid-term day tied to a specific training need
Because schools set these independently, an INSET day at your child's school often won't line up with their sibling's school, or with your own days off. That mismatch is exactly where the childcare scramble comes from.
How to find your school's INSET dates
Your school must publish its INSET dates in advance. You shouldn't be guessing. In order of reliability, check:
- The school website. Look for "term dates" or "school calendar", usually confirmed before September.
- Newsletters and the school app (ParentMail, Arbor, Class Dojo, Seesaw and similar). Dates are often announced there first.
- Your local council's term dates page. This gives the standard term structure, though individual INSET days are still set by the school.
- The school office. A quick email will confirm the year's dates if you can't find them.
LOAD automatically pulls your school's INSET days, and every other key date, into one calendar, so you never get caught out by a training day you'd forgotten was coming.
See how LOAD reads your school comms →What to do with the kids on an INSET day
Once you know the date is coming, an INSET day is manageable rather than stressful. Practical options parents rely on:
- Holiday and INSET-day clubs. Many schools, leisure centres and private providers run one-off days that map exactly onto local INSET dates.
- Team up with other parents. If schools share a date, a swap or shared-care arrangement spreads the load.
- Book leave early. Knowing the date months ahead means you can plan a work-from-home day or annual leave without a last-minute panic.
- Make it count. A quieter day out, a museum trip or catching up on a hobby beats an unplanned screen day.
The single biggest thing that turns an INSET day from a headache into a non-event is simply knowing it's coming with enough notice to plan around it.
Frequently asked questions
No. Every school sets its own INSET dates, so two schools in the same town, even ones a street apart, regularly close on different days. Always check your specific school's published dates rather than assuming they match a friend's or a sibling's school.
England, Scotland and Wales each typically have 5 staff-training days a year, though Scotland and Wales set them locally. Northern Ireland uses a different structure with several exceptional closure days. Academies and independent schools can set their own number.
State schools in England are funded for 5. In exceptional circumstances a school can close to pupils for additional staff-training or operational reasons, but these are rare and must still be communicated to parents in advance where possible.
Because they're not centrally scheduled. Each school places its 5 days to suit its own training plan, often around half-terms or at the start of September, so from a parent's view they can feel scattered. They're published in advance, which is why getting them into your calendar early matters.
Shilpa Patel
Shilpa spent years in the classroom before becoming a parent herself, which means she's seen INSET days from both sides of the gate. She writes LOAD's school-calendar guides to turn the confusing bits of school admin into something families can actually plan around, in plain English and without the jargon.
More from Shilpa →