Why do teachers have 'Inset' days these days? Never had them when we were at school.?

Question

And please dont say 'training' - I thought they already were highly trained.

Answer 1

When training days were introduced in the late 1980s by then education secretary Kenneth Baker (hence 'Baker Days'), the five days training was taken out of teachers' holiday time. Children do the same number of days at school now as they did before training days were introduced. Teachers lost a week of holiday, but the days were spread through the year.

Answer 2

New systems, professional development high on the agenda and a chance for departments to put ideas into practice before implementing them in the classroom. Schools are much more dynamic these days with many issues facing education so understanding of a much more diverse curiculum have to be understood by a bigger cross section of the staff within schools, so it's therefore easier to organise the training around a whole day. We had similar days off they just weren't called inset days, perhaps baker days or teacher training days might ring a bell?

Answer 3

well my father is a teacher and he has been for thirt years. Apparently it's not for training but they have to sort ou timetabling and also simply work out their plans for particular needs of children on different courses. Teachers are given a certain number of 'holiday' days a year and these days are taken off from that. In most schools christmas is no longer two weeks but ten days. Plus I suspect there is a little updating going on being that Mr Blair is continously adjusting the education system.

Answer 4

Usually meetings, often tyo make sure teachers are prepared for specific events like writing reports etc.

Just because students aren't at school doesn't hecessarily mean that the teachers are on holidays. At my last school many of us were working throughouy the 'holidays'.

In addition to that, students only see the teachers'contact hours. Some recent research in Australia found that teachers on average, work about 55 hours a week. Adain, at my last school, I was expected to teach a normal teaching load, look after borders 10 hours a week, conduct additional tutoring 3hours a week, coach a sport, 3 - 5 hours a week, attend after hours school sporting events, attend community events to be an active member of the local community.

On top of this, we are expected to keep our knowledge of our subject current e.g. new software, techniques, the ever changing curriculum so don't even think about starting a discussion of teachers workload. They didn't do that when you were at school either

Answer 5

Actually, the term is "inservice" days, that those days are set aside for teachers to get together to discuss the good and the bad in their school environment. Yes, teachers are highly trained, but the face of education is changing rapidly. For example, I graduated from college 15 years ago with my bachelor's degree - and computers were just beginning to be used in the classroom. I received my Master's degree 11 years ago, and computers still weren't widespread. Those inservice times have kept me up to date on the latest technology available at my school, new curriculum ideas that can help to reach students with diferent learning styles and problems within my own school and how they can be solved. Teachers spend many hours outside class and inservice learning about new things, but those inservice days give us time to put the things we learn into practice in our own situation. They also give teachers time to collaborate with other teachers in order to intertwine knowledge for the student. I graduated from high school 20 years ago, but I remember that we had inservice days back then. My district only has 3 inservice days per year - I don't know about other districts.

Answer 6

nicely im not completely particular yet i once had to act in a movie on a thanks to be a good instructor or something which they confirmed to all my instructors throughout the time of inset day so im guessing they 'prepare' (be conscious the inverted commas) to be more effective perfect instructors or in basic terms sit down round and compensate for some marking

Answer 7

I asked a teacher why do they,and she replied there is not enough time in the year for trainning. HELLO how many hols do you have a year, and how come a lot of kids leave school not knowing the basics.

Answer 8

1

Answer 9

Because they have to work to a syllabus which is constantly being changed by Government, so they have to be trained and informed on the new syllabus.

Answer 10

Excuse to give them all a half day