The 195-day teaching year and INSET days

A full-time teacher in a maintained school in England must be available for work for 195 days a year. Of those, 190 are days on which they can be required to teach and do other duties, and 5 are days for other duties only, which is what most schools call INSET or training days. Across the year they must also be available for 1,265 hours of directed time. The figures come from the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document 2026.

What the 195 days mean

The employer, or the headteacher if the employer directs, specifies which days make up the 195. The document does not set out a separate holiday entitlement for teachers, so your contract and the school calendar are where to look for the dates you are expected to be in.

The rule does not apply to headteachers, deputies, assistant heads and leading practitioners, who are not on a time-bound contract. See the school leader working hours guide.

The 1,265 hours

Directed time is the hours you must be available to do duties at times and places set by the head. The 1,265 hours have to be spread reasonably across the 195 days. Break time and travelling to and from work do not count towards them. Planning, preparation and assessment time is part of them, as set out in the guide to teachers’ contract limits.

On top of that, a teacher must work the reasonable additional hours needed to do the job, including planning, preparing lessons and marking. The employer cannot dictate how many of those hours you work or when. The teaching workload guide goes into what that means day to day.

INSET days from September 2026

The 2026 document changed how the five non-teaching days can be used. They can now be delivered on a time-equivalent basis, for instance as twilight sessions or half days, while keeping the 190 teaching days as calendar days. The guidance gives these conditions:

• the total INSET activity across the year must not exceed the equivalent of five full working days
• teachers should get reasonable notice of the sessions
• workload, wellbeing and work-life balance should be considered
• total directed time must stay within the statutory limit

A single day can mix teaching time and INSET time. In that case the teaching counts towards the 190 days and the INSET activity counts, on a time-equivalent basis, towards the five.

The guidance says a school that wants to change how it organises the five days would be expected to consult affected teachers and their recognised unions, and to engage with parents and carers.

Part-time teachers

The same rules apply pro rata. A part-time teacher’s INSET time must not exceed the pro-rated equivalent of five days, unless the extra has been compensated by a reduction in other directed time. Part-timers cannot be required to attend non-pupil days on days they do not normally work, though they can agree to by arrangement with the head. The part-time teacher guide works through an hours example.

What to check

• Ask for the school’s calendar showing which five days are INSET days, and whether any are being converted into twilights.
• Check your contract for the number of days and hours, particularly in an academy, where the document does not apply automatically.
• If you work part-time, ask for your written working-time statement, which sets out expected directed time beyond the school day.