Amy Brown isn't your typical teacher - if the English teacher unions are anything to go by. She works in a small primary school in a village on the edge of a large town in the midlands of England, and guess what? - she's not demoralised, she's not stressed out and she loves her job. She's probably very lucky. With only 140 pupils, her school is way below the national average (around 230) in terms of size. The children come from families which are largely middle class and highly motivated. Even the less well-off parents who live in mobile homes and housing association houses are supportive and keen for their children to succeed.

It's widely accepted in educational circles in England - and in Ireland - that children are more likely to do well at school if their parents take a positive interest in their education.

She's lucky, too, that she works in a school where fundraising for extras presents no problems - most of the parents can well afford it. Some teachers would argue that Brown lives a charmed life - teachers working in larger schools in less affluent areas have a much more difficult time, with more stress and greater pressure, as indeed do many teachers in the Republic.

Like most teachers in Britain, Brown is overworked - but she tries not to look at it like that. This week, for example, she's on half term and plans to spend at least two days of her week working on pupil assessments and refining her teaching planning.

Teacher paperwork in England increased enormously after the Tory government introduced a national curriculum, ongoing teacher assessment of pupils and national testing at ages seven, 11 and 14, in 1988. Brown reckons she spends as much time on comprehensive record keeping as she does on classroom teaching. Out of her 6 weeks summer holidays, she spends two weeks on medium term planning for the new school year. This summer, she'll also have the new national curriculum documents - Curriculum 2000 - to contend with.

The schoolday is 9 a.m. to 3.15 p.m., but like most of her colleagues, Brown usually starts work at 8 a.m. and rarely leaves before 5 p.m. If it's her day for lunch or other duties, she'll get less than half an hour for lunch. Brown also brings home about one and a half hours' marking and class planning each evening. She takes off Friday night, but makes up for it by working three hours on Sunday.

The Literacy and Numeracy Hours, introduced by the Labour government, have also caused extra work for teachers. It doesn't end here - the list of duties teachers have to perform, on top of the extra-curricular duties in which they are involved, seems endless. Ofsted inspections, which were introduced in 1992, cause huge upheavals and extra work in schools - though they are less of a problem now than they were at first, unions say.

The 1992 Education (Schools) Act enabled government ministers to require the publication of performance tables of schools' academic progress. As a result, the infamous league tables were first published in 1993 and schools were ranked on exam performance.

In England, the school year provides for 190 days for pupils and 195 days for teachers. The five extra teacher days are used for school activities, training and planning. Brown is curriculum co-ordinator for maths in her school and finds she has to do most of the work required - including liaising with other teachers - in her own time and their's. In the Republic, 183 teaching days are the required minimum at primary level, while at second-level, schools must be open for teaching for 167 days. Although large numbers of teachers opt to take work-related training courses or to pursue postgraduate qualifications in their own time, in-service provision tends to take place during school hours. Teachers, though, are also involved in marking, planning and extracurricular activities in the evenings and at weekends.

The ASTI estimates that teachers work a minimum of 41 hours per week. The introduction of new courses and syllabi have added to their workload. The new pupil assessment at primary level - in which teachers build up a detailed profile of each pupil and compare their grades with the national average - will almost certainly involve teachers in longer working hours, at a time when they are grappling with the introduction of the revised primary school curriculum. Although her job is pressured, Brown believes she is working in the best interests of the children in her care. Her working hours are no different to those worked by other teachers in her school. People simply do what has to be done.

Brown came to teaching relatively late in life. A former secretary, she returned to education in her twenties and entered the teaching profession at the same time that the national curriculum was being introduced. Push her, and she'd tell you that there's a lot of unwarranted negativity in the profession. She'd admit that the national curriculum was introduced in a haphazard way, but would argue that it has become more focused, with a greater emphasis on basic skills and an increase in the use of IT.

When Brown came into teaching, teachers were leaving in droves and people were extremely demoralised. Many teachers - particularly the older ones - remain unhappy. The younger teachers, who have known no other way, find the paperwork and the bureaucracy less of an issue.

According to the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, many teachers would like to get out, but premature retirement was withdrawn in 1998, to stem the flow.

Teacher recruitment and retention remain a problem. Figures are hard to come by, but teacher unions confirm that, anecdotally at least, the teaching profession in England enjoys an increasingly younger age profile, unlike the situation here, where teaching is still regarded as a `greying profession'.

Even in Amy Brown's school, they have difficulty in finding supply teachers. Getting the thirtysomethings with children, back into teaching, is becoming well nigh impossible. The pace of change has been such, that if you're out of the profession for a few years, you'll feel unable to pick up the pieces.

In an attempt to rectify this issue, the Blair Government has issued a document on the training of supply teachers.