Inset day

In education, an inset day (an abbreviation of in-service training day; alternatively INSET day) is a school day on which teaching sessions are not conducted and students do not attend school, but teachers are required to attend for training or to complete administrative tasks. Inset days allow teachers to catch up on work (such as marking exams or report cards), train on new technology, or learn new methods of teaching. Inset days are common in Commonwealth countries, predominantly the United Kingdom and Canada, and also Ireland.

An inset day may also be known as a PD day (professional development day; alternatively pro-D day), PA day (professional activity day), Ped Day (pedagogical day), TD day (teacher development day), teacher training day, Baker day,  staff development day, school development day, or inservice day.

History
In the UK, inset days were introduced in 1988 by Kenneth Baker, then the Secretary of State for Education, as part of a series of reforms that included the introduction of the National Curriculum for England. Baker introduced the requirement for teachers to attend training in addition to the 190 days previously required, leading to the name Baker days.

United Kingdom
In the UK, teachers in state schools are required to undertake five inset days in addition to the 190 teaching days children are required to be in school. The days are determined by the local education authority, although academy and free schools have the freedom to set their own dates.

Canada
In Canada, the number of inset days varies between each province and individual school board. The Canadian territories are not known to have inset days.

Australia
In Australia it is either known as school development days or staff development days where teaching staff prepare for the school term and it usually is the first day of school term. This could involve professional learning or doing administrative tasks.

Criticism
Parents have to arrange childcare or schedules to account for inset days. This can cause disruptions and burdens on parents who do not have easy access to childcare and flexible schedules. Teachers who are parents themselves may have greater problems than other working parents since they are unable to take inset days off to look after their own children when an inset day is scheduled at their children's school. In Canada, some YMCAs and businesses offer "PA day camps" to help parents make alternative plans.

It has been suggested that inset days lead to greater truancy, especially when they are scheduled near the end of the school year for teachers to mark report cards and final exams, as students may believe their marks and attendance after those inset days no longer matter.