A science teacher startled the staffroom recently when he revealed that he had previously taught in a primary school. There was a brief moment of respectful silence.

It turned out, however, that he had lasted for two hours and 15 minutes. (“Oh no, I didn’t want to do a whole day.”)

I knew what he meant. Primary and secondary teachers share the same language when referring to the growing expectations placed on us, but the heat is even more intense over there.

A NEU teaching union survey on workload revealed that the proportion of teachers talking about pressures and expectations was far greater, overall, in the primary sector.

Only two conclusions can be drawn from that. Either primary teachers whinge more than secondary teachers or - more likely - they find the job tougher than we do.

Some say primary is easier because younger pupils show more enthusiasm and that makes them easier to teach. I’m not convinced. Give me a surly adolescent any time, rather than make me deal with the diverse needs of younger children, with runny noses, spillages, bleeding knees.

But whether you agree is not the main point. What matters is that the two sectors are very different. Unity is strength, but if we ignore those differences, too many initiatives will prove generic, irrelevant or unworkable for half - if not all - of us.

Stephen Petty is head of humanities at Lord Williams’s School in Thame, Oxfordshire