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Could it be there is a whooping and a hollering in staff rooms this week at a ?

Sections of the public have an idea that teachers are out of the school gate almost as quickly as the pupils. And believe that long before many other workers are homeward bound, teachers are watching Countdown on TV.

This survey indicates (I know because I had to plough through it - almost 500 pages since you ask) that teachers in Scotland spend more time in the classroom than the vast majority of their counterparts elsewhere in the world. Contact time takes up 60% of their contracted hours.

These are valuable points to highlight the next time anyone tries to suggest teachers should do more of their marking and preparing after the school bell has rung.

Another possible cause for good cheer - pay compares quite well. Secondary staff here with 15 years experience scrape into the top quarter of the international salary range. And primary teachers in Scotland are unusual in having the same salaries as secondary staff.

Those facts may not be of great comfort however if local councils try - as is widely expected - to impose a pay freeze on the profession next year.