THIS week a teacher friend of mine decided to quit her job.

In the end, she said through tears and a large glass of wine, she just could not keep functioning with her current stress levels - and in July will return to journalism.

She explained her marriage is suffering, she has no free time as she spends her evenings, weekends and holidays working - and this week, on half term, she has taken a car full of planning, marking and paperwork on holiday to Newquay.

"Hubby's on the beer and I'm still doing planning!" she texted me. "There's something very wrong with this picture!"

I'd like to say she's being melodramatic.

But this lovely, bubbly, hard-working friend will be one of five colleagues at her small school handing their notice in at Easter.

And in the last month two close family members of mine have made the same decision over their teaching careers, while another friend and an acquaintance have done the same.

They are at different schools in different parts of the country - but all tell the same story.

They are overworked, stressed, set impossible targets, expected to give hours of their free time at evenings and weekends and are still not considered good enough.

A child on target for a D grade MUST be brought up to a C grade so that the school gets its percentage of A*-Cs.

Never mind that the child is of D grade ability - and that there's a reason the spectrum of grades goes beyond a C.

This kind of attitude is also to the detriment of higher ability pupils who could achieve a top grade - but once they hit their 'C' cannot be given anymore attention.

There seems to be an attitude in teaching that you're doing a terrible job unless you jump through hoops to prove otherwise.

And forget the 'amazing holidays' they get, because every one I know spends their breaks either recovering from the previous term or planning furiously for the next.

So this week I'm on my soap box championing the cause of teachers everywhere and hoping they're having an enjoyable half term.

And by that I mean one that actually includes a break at some point.