Mistakes to Avoid When Planning Your INSET CPD Day

You’ve got one or two days to reset the tone, share your priorities and cover everything from safeguarding to systems. The temptation is to cram everything in and tick it off your list so you can say you've covered it. However, even well-planned INSET days can fall flat if we try to do too much, too quickly. Staff members may end up leaving confused and with a lack of clarity, which is exactly what we don't want!

If you’re planning staff training for September, these four common INSET mistakes are worth avoiding – especially if you want your CPD to be memorable.

1. Cramming too much into your INSET days

Most school leaders start with a list.

✓ Safeguarding

✓ Behaviour

✓ Curriculum

✓ SEND. Assessment. Tech updates. Admin... and the rest.

That’s before you’ve touched your school priorities. Effective INSET training isn’t about fitting everything in, it’s about choosing what’s worth doing well.

A packed agenda can make you feel efficient in the moment, but by the end of the second day, most staff are overloaded and disengaged. The message gets lost in the noise and people begin to switch off. The topics and themes above are important components of school life and therefore deserve to be given the time and focus they need and not rushed through in one long whistle stop tour.

When planning your INSET day, try to ask yourself:

• Are we prioritising depth over coverage?
  
• What will staff actually have time to act on?
  
• Could we build in space for implementation, either during INSET or in the first weeks back?
  
• Where else can we cover some of the important aspects we'd like to explore during INSET but just don't have the time to?

What can support you:

• A focused safeguarding session – like our KCSIE 2025 Training Pack or Scenarios
• Your school improvement plan – use it to remind yourself about what really matters now
  
• An INSET Planning Checklist to help filter out what's not needed and in turn stay strategic
  
  

2. Running CPD sessions that don’t engage

When CPD is something that happens to staff rather than with them, engagement can drop off fast. This doesn’t mean everything has to be interactive, but if your INSET day CPD doesn’t include space to think or discuss, it can affect the impact of the session and the outcomes you see longer term.

When planning your INSET day, consider:

• Where in the day do staff get to do something with the content?
  
• Could a real-life dilemma or example prompt discussion?
  
• Are we modelling the kind of learning we want in classrooms?
  

3. Skipping the ‘why’ behind your training

When there’s a lot to cover during INSET, it’s tempting to dive straight into logistics: what needs doing, when it’s happening, who’s responsible, and how it’ll be monitored. But if you jump straight to the what and how, you risk missing the one piece that makes it all land: the why. It can also just end up feeling like another set of initiatives that will add to their workload, rather than understanding the thought behind it's implementation and how this links to what staff already care deeply about.

Before you roll out that new behaviour policy, curriculum focus or safeguarding refresher, ask yourself:

• What’s the real story behind this priority — and does it resonate with our staff?
• Can we link it to something that’s already in motion, rather than launching it as something completely new?
• By the end of the session, would a member of staff be able to explain the “why” of this training clearly?
  
  

4. Forgetting to plan INSET follow-up

Every September, leaders deliver thoughtful, focused training – then get pulled into the rush of term. Six weeks later, you wonder why things haven't been implemented as you'd hoped. If you want INSET to lead to actual change, follow-up can’t be an afterthought, it needs to be planned from the start. That doesn’t mean reinventing your calendar or cramming more into an already tight schedule. Often, it’s about using existing structures more strategically.

It might mean:

• A subject leader weaving the INSET themes into their curriculum drop-ins
• A line manager bringing it into one-to-one conversations
• A 10-minute refresher during an October staff meeting
• Revisiting the training through a scenario, quiz or visual prompt in a team briefing

When planning how to follow up on the INSET training, think about:

• When and how will we return to this?
  
• Who’s responsible for keeping it on the radar?
  
• What structures already exist that we can use?
  

For more INSET ideas, take a look at our ready-to-use guidance and packs, safeguarding training and induction materials.