THESE dedicated teachers have all chosen to leave the profession early.

The reasons they give are all the same: excess workload, lack of discipline in classrooms and a massive amount of red tape.

All they want to do is teach. And all will continue to be involved in education.

In recent years Swindon has had severe problems attracting teachers to the town because of the high cost of housing and poor reputation of many of its schools, although this year things are believed to be improving.

But the plight of these teachers is typical of hundreds across Swindon who arrive at school first thing in the morning and don't come home until the early evening, where they are faced with hours more marking and planning.

South Swindon MP Julia Drown claims things are getting better.

She said: "The Government recognises that there are huge demands placed on teachers but those demands are there because we want to achieve as much as possible for our young people.

"To support teachers better we are increasing the number of teachers and support staff. The number of teachers in Swindon has increased by five per cent from 718 to 756 in the last four years.

"It may not be immediately apparent but we are working with teachers on cutting down the paperwork by finding out what is important."

But Phil Baker, assistant head of Headlands School and branch secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, is sceptical.

He said: "I arrive at work at 5.45am every morning and it still isn't early enough, and I stay until about 6pm.

"The problem is the unacceptable workload and increasing expectations of teachers at a time when classroom management is far harder than before.

"Teachers work very hard at their job and they have not got time for a life outside of work. They are totally exhausted."

John Simpson, education director of Tribal, the private firm brought in to help Swindon's education service, says he is working hard to make things better for the town's teachers.

He said: "The first thing we want to do is make teachers feel valued, so I was delighted to see three of our teachers win awards at the BT Teaching Awards in June, and I wrote to each of them personally.

"In the medium to long term we need to work to try and find ways of managing teachers' workload.

"For example, with lesson plans for the literacy strategy we can produce schemes of work that all teachers can use so they don't have to dream up their own. We can use IT to put lesson plans on the internet and make sure teachers have access to high quality training."

It remains to be seen what can be done to persuade more people like Dick, Nicola or Linda to stay in teaching.