Off school but not inset days - is it normal?

thegirlintheattic

Not normal here. We have taster days that Year 6 students have to attend late in the summer term, and in addition most kids are from feeder schools who are in and out over the years for sports, plays, special lessons. The only students who have extra days are sixth formers, who come in on INSET days to sort out options, UCAS etc.

We have a very strong pastoral system that puts a lot of emphasis on the older students helping the younger ones; so having just the Year 7s for a few days wouldn't make much sense. It also seems a little strange as Year 7 wouldn't get used to how the school normally is.

pigpen

Spendless wrote: »

I think barbiedoll is asking if the training takes place on the school premises rather than what they are about?

Some of the stuff they do can be done at home and as far as I am aware the training isn't always done on the school premises I think it depends on the topic. I know there have been occasions when trainers are in high demand the teachers from one or 2 or more schools will travel to a central place and have training with teachers from other school. I know out LA has a now closed secondary school building which they use for conferences and to train staff from multiple schools on one site. This seems to be most commonly used for topics such as child protection, health and safety, first aid etc where all staff members need to be aware of the protocols.

thegirlintheattic

pigpen wrote: »

inset days have been used to organise classrooms, prepare registers and exercise books and cloak room stickers and read up on any additional needs the children might have. printing sheets for lessons, health and safety training for any trips or to discuss individual pupils .. sometimes to understand home circumstances or illnesses or abilities.

Not in my secondary. All staff have to attend 8 to 4 on INSET day, which is split into different training sessions. Little time, if any, is given to the tasks you describe, that has to be done in holidays or after the INSET.

For example, last September we had one day of different training sessions/data review (e.g. how do we improve our results, adventure learning training, the latest snazzy teaching technique training). The the second day was various sessions for different staff teams e.g. all form tutors, all senior leaders, all subject heads. Then an hour in departments to again go over results and finalise changes to the curriculum.

I did all the sorting the classroom, seating plans etc. in the last week of the holidays.

pigpen

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

Not in my secondary. All staff have to attend 8 to 4 on INSET day, which is split into different training sessions. Little time, if any, is given to the tasks you describe, that has to be done in holidays or after the INSET.

For example, last September we had one day of different training sessions/data review (e.g. how do we improve our results, adventure learning training, the latest snazzy teaching technique training). The the second day was various sessions for different staff teams e.g. all form tutors, all senior leaders, all subject heads. Then an hour in departments to again go over results and finalise changes to the curriculum.

I did all the sorting the classroom, seating plans etc. in the last week of the holidays.

In the secondaries there seem to be a lot of departmental meetings and discussions.. but it is easier for the odd teacher to attend mid term training sessions as there is cover more readily available.

GwylimT

barbiedoll wrote: »

Yes, I can remember starting at my secondary school along with the 800+ other pupils and I don't think that I was too traumatised by the experience!

Can any teachers on here shed light on the inset days, are they for training purposes? We are always told that they are but where do the teachers do their training? I'm guessing that it's not in school as the car park is always empty during inset days. (Am not having a dig, am just genuinely interested)

It depends on the school, we always have one day that is purely dedicated to child safety training. Then we have department based CPD, so on the first Monday of the summer holidays I will be having a CPD alongside other local garages in town to discuss the different ways we can ensure our work placements are effective and for the individual garages to receive guidance on handing/training a young person.

The two days before our students come back those staff members who need to renew their first aid training will be doing so on the first day, then that evening we will all be receiving extra training as a pupil with a health condition is starting school so we need to know how to handle him, what to do if he is ill etc and so we can have a better talk with his parents.

The day before the year sevens start we are having CPD on differentiation (teaching different abilities/learning styles) and then each department are having a presentation where a company attempts to sell us some educational toll.

In the holidays they vary, sometimes ours are off site training courses, so in May I spent a day in Manchester on a course for managing those with additional behavioral needs as many of my students don't take well to formal education and are what I call a bit rough and ready so I thought I might benefit from it and swap tips with the different people attending. My last school used to reserve one day for the head teacher to give us a talk about how amazing he was, we enjoyed that...

A lot of training or mini courses are in high demand so its fairly common to travel to a conference centre or a university where the session will be held instead of it being held at individual schools, also many schools use their buildings for local groups, scouts etc and so in many cases the school hall isn't available.

princessdon

Thanks everyone - just an information update, we received a letter that earlier advised inset days were now not taking place, they changed to beginning of term in part for year 7 but also as building work/decorating may be delayed.

This means that the school will be doing the legal number of days.