What is an INSET day? A parent's guide for 2026/27
INSET days are the 5 teacher-training days a year when your school is shut but it isn't a holiday. Here's what they are, how many, and how to find yours.
An INSET day is one of the five teacher-training days a year when the school is open for staff but closed to pupils. INSET stands for in-service training. They sit on top of the 190 days your child has to be in school, your school picks its own dates, and there's no rule that they line up with any other school's. That last part is exactly why they catch you out.
So the school's shut, and it's not a holiday. What's going on?
You've checked the calendar twice. It's a Tuesday in October, term's in full swing, and the school is closed. No storm, no strike. This is almost certainly an INSET day: a day the school sets aside for staff training, so the teachers are in but the children aren't.
The name is the giveaway once you know it. INSET is "in-service training". You'll also hear them called training days, or Baker days, after Kenneth Baker, the education secretary who brought them in back in 1988. Same thing, three names.
How many INSET days does a school get?
Five a year. A school year is built from 190 days your child is legally required to be in class, plus five extra days the staff are in but the pupils aren't. Add them up and teachers are directed to work 195 days. Those five are the INSET days.
Almost every state school in England uses the full five. Some split them up (one before each term, say), some join two together for a long weekend, and academies and independent schools can arrange them however they like. The number rarely changes. When they fall is where it gets interesting.
Who decides when they fall?
The school does, within the term structure. For community and voluntary-controlled schools the local council sets the term and holiday dates, and the school slots its INSET days around them. Academies, free schools and independents set the whole calendar themselves. That's why two schools on the same street can take a training day on different Fridays, and why one child is off while their friend down the road is in.
Why INSET days always seem to ambush you
Here's the honest bit that most guides skip. There's no national rule that says when INSET days have to fall, or how much notice you get. In practice, plenty of schools publish all five in the summer with the next year's dates, which is brilliant. Others release them a term at a time. And every so often one moves at short notice for a course or a school-improvement day.
As a teacher I sat through the training these days are for. And I've watched plenty of organised, on-top-of-it parents still get caught out, standing at a locked gate on a morning they'd completely forgotten was an INSET day. It happens to the best of us, because the information arrives in bits: a line in a newsletter in July, a reminder on the app in September, a text the week before. No single place holds all five for the year.
How to find your school's INSET days
The reliable way is to get them from the school itself, not the council:
- The school's own term-dates page is the source of truth. If it lists INSET days, that's your answer.
- The summer newsletter often carries next year's dates, including the training days, before anyone's thinking about September.
- The school app or office if it isn't published. It's a fair question and they'll have the answer.
Then put all five straight into one calendar the whole family sees, the moment you have them. It's the single thing that stops the 7am gate-staring. If you want them checked and kept current for you, LOAD lists the verified dates for each school, INSET days included, so you can find your school's term dates or see when it breaks up for the holidays without hunting through five channels.
Do you have to arrange childcare for an INSET day?
Yes. It's a normal school closure, so the usual cover applies: annual leave, a grandparent, a childminder, or a holiday club if one runs locally. Some schools' own wraparound or breakfast clubs stay open on INSET days and some don't, so it's worth asking rather than assuming. The INSET day itself is a genuine day off, so being home for it isn't absence. The days either side are normal school days, though, so stretching it into a trip means taking your child out on those days. Unless the head has agreed it, that counts as unauthorised term-time absence, which can be fined .
Frequently asked questions
Yes. "Baker day" is just the older nickname, after Kenneth Baker who introduced them in 1988. INSET day, training day and Baker day all mean the same thing.
Almost all state schools use five a year. Academies and independent schools set their own calendar and can, in principle, arrange the staff-training time differently, but five is the standard.
No. They fall within term time, on days that would otherwise be normal school days. That's why they surprise people: the calendar says term-time, but the school is shut.
It can. There's no national rule fixing the notice period, so a school can move one. It's uncommon, but it's why it's worth a quick check at the start of each term.
Because each school picks its own. Neighbouring schools, and especially academies versus council-maintained schools, often land their training days on different dates. LOAD keeps your school's real dates, INSET days and all, in one place, and reminds you before they land.
Shilpa Patel
Shilpa is a qualified teacher and Teach First ambassador who teaches Economics, so she's seen school life from both sides of the gate: the staff side and the parent side. She writes LOAD's school-calendar guides to turn the confusing bits of school admin into something families can plan around, in plain English.
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