Supported by We Are In Beta and e4education, this event is open and free to all teachers, support staff and school leaders. The inspiring virtual event for the primary and secondary sector starts at 9.30am and includes talks from Matthew Syed, Tom Sherrington, Tom Bennett, Naureen Khalid, Katharine Birbalsingh and Andy Buck.  

Will Smith, CEO of the Greenshaw Learning Trust commented:

“To take away the pressure of schools across the country organising their own inset day we have brought together a packed programme of the very best speakers from education and beyond. The event is an opportunity for the education community to come together to recognise the incredible response of the teaching profession in tackling the challenges of coronavirus, with a particular focus on staff health and wellbeing.”

The event is being hosted on the ‘We Are In Beta’ platform, accessed from school or from home, individually, or as part of a team. All registered delegates will receive updates on the confirmed speakers, a recording of the presentations and a free health and wellbeing pack immediately following the event. Each session will be released live so people can watch together in real-time and share views and comment on the topics discussed.

School staff and School Leaders can sign up for the event here: https://www.weareinbeta.community/courses/3820121/about?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=INSET_nationalINSET_about&utm_term=Agenda

End of term planning

We know that school and further education leaders, teachers and staff, as well as nurseries and childminders, have worked tirelessly over the last term. This has included their important role in contact tracing, to help in the national effort to limit the spread of the virus. We are aware that this has led to additional work over weekends and holidays and we are incredibly grateful for this.

We recognise the challenges of this responsibility at the end of term. Public Health England has agreed a 6 day window after the final day of teaching in which schools and further education providers are asked to remain contactable so they can assist with contact tracing where necessary. This will allow enough time for positive coronavirus (COVID-19) cases to be identified and confirmed by a test and for relevant contacts in the education setting to be traced. We are clear that beyond 6 days after the final day of teaching, school and further education staff are not asked to play a role in any contact tracing. It is also likely that the need to support the tracing process will reduce dramatically over the course of the 6 days as the majority of cases should be identified earlier in the week.

End of term – advice for schools

To ensure that staff get the time off they need and deserve, schools may wish to use an INSET day, making Friday 18 December a non-teaching day and using the day for staff training, which could be delivered online. Where term would normally finish in the week commencing 21 December, schools may wish to consider adjusting term dates to make Friday 18 December the last day of term (which could be an INSET day), and bringing forward the start of term in January by the same number of days.

In all circumstances, teaching time must be made up at another point in the academic year. You should not limit attendance at school before Friday 18 December. It remains vital for all children to be in school up to the last day of teaching.

We recognise this communication has arrived with schools late in the term but would ask schools to be as helpful to parents as they can by sharing any changes to end of term arrangements as soon as possible, particularly where schools choose to make Friday 18 December a non-teaching day. Your support with this is appreciated.