To say that I am eagerly counting the days before the annual Inset at the start of term may be stretching it a bit. 

That said, I do look forward to hearing again the annual buzz of re-energised, healthy-looking colleagues gathering in the school hall. The sound is made from most of us asking or answering the same questions: “How was your break?”, “Did you go away?”, or “How was your trip to... er, where was it you were going to?”

A whole Inset session could be spent on how best we should address these queries. Assuming things have gone well, we traditionally respond by saying that we had a “great time thanks”. We briefly mention any holiday destination visited but the awkward bit is then working out whether that particular inquisitor wishes to hear any further details and anecdotes or whether they now want to move on to someone else.  

Is it the moment, for instance, to tell the other person (our line manager, say) our rather extensive tale of a night spent outdoors in the jungle with monkeys and jaguars, or does our boss now look as if they want to get away from us and “work the room?” Though perhaps it doesn’t really matter whether half the room feels trapped or not - the din of enthusiastic reminiscence is uplifting either way and sets a warm and positive tone for the day ahead.  

Most schools then begin the formal part of the day with an opening address from the headteacher. Difficult though it might be, it is important to listen to what the head says in this keynote speech and not to be overly focused on what he or she might have opted to wear. While most of us can mindlessly throw on any old T-shirt and jeans on such a day, the nation’s headteachers face a real wardrobe dilemma.  

Heads might similarly benefit from some Inset on this. The favoured suit probably feels a bit too distant and stuffy. On the other hand, opting for something casual seems a bit too, well, “casual”, particularly as most heads will almost certainly have something to say in their address about “keeping a tight hold on uniform” this term. And yet any compromise can prove to be the most disastrous option of all.  Staff at one nearby school still recall with great warmth their former head’s decision to go half and half. He had opted for formal navy blazer and tie above the waist, baggy old pair of jeans and sockless sandals below. 

However, as said, I shall try at our Inset not to focus too much on such trifles. I will stay in the right mental zone. I will purposefully sit near the front. Nor will I indulge in “education jargon bingo” - a game apparently practised at some other schools’ Inset days. I will reject all such cynical or facetious voices from outside or within. 

In fact the more experienced I become as a teacher the more I seriously feel the need to engage fully with the training sessions on such days, rather than going down the path of becoming the blinkered “heard-it-all-before” bore. Yes, I may have heard some of it before but as an old pro, I probably need reminding more than most colleagues about alternative teaching approaches and strategies. I need to have my mind regularly re-opened, not to get too comfortable and deluded with my own precious “ways”.  

Similarly, I will try to treat any new initiatives listed on that Inset agenda with an open mind. I will not immediately dismiss them as the “latest fad”, even if they eventually prove to be just that.

There is, of course, plenty to mock and moan about in the world of teaching. But the start-of-year Inset is not the right time and place for that - oh all right, maybe a modicum of mocking is still in order. The day should mainly be about starting afresh though - not just starting afresh in body but starting afresh in spirit too.  

Stephen Petty is head of humanities at Lord Williams’s School in Thame, Oxfordshire