There are more than 435,000 teachers in the UK in well over 20,000 maintained schools, and each year around 40,000 people in England are recruited to train as teachers

Recent restructuring, accidents, timetable changes, delays and funding issues highlight the fact that the organisation adopted when British Rail was split into more than 260 separate private companies employing 180,000 people has been as controversial as the very idea of selling this national asset