Sometimes it seems like the education reforms are going around in circles," says Louise McDonald, a 30-year-old teacher from a Catholic primary school in south London. "Teaching practices once deemed unacceptable are now coming back. We are being told that we don't have to do things exactly the way we were told to do them two or three years ago and teachers can go back to the way things were before."

After six years as a teacher in inner London schools, McDonald argues that the focus on literacy and numeracy demanded by the Labour government has caused difficulties in teaching other subjects, such as geography, art and physical education. "Where it has become more difficult is with the introduction of the literacy and numeracy hour in the last three years - in some ways it was a new way of teaching because the subjects were taught in isolation," she says.

"Previously teachers made links between maths and English and other subjects, but then the focus changed. Now it is going back to pre-reform days."

Despite Labour's claims that it has reduced the amount of bureaucracy in schools, paperwork is increasing and some of it is a waste of time, says McDonald. She spends about two hours a week organising lesson plans for her class of 30 seven-year-olds, and at least 30 minutes each day dealing with paperwork. "I certainly think there is more paperwork since I began teaching. We have to set targets for each child, and this is planned and written down for parents." Planning weekly lessons "takes up a lot of time and energy" and, according to McDonald, it is often difficult to achieve the level of detail demanded by the national curriculum. "It is hard to be so precise about what you want from each lesson. I prefer to work on a day-to-day basis."

Things are even harder for some of her colleagues, says McDonald. "They often talk about having a very tough time in inner London schools, because they spend so much time dealing with discipline issues rather than actually teaching the children."

Some teachers regard school inspections as an "evil presence", says McDonald, but she appears untroubled by the experience. "Inspections have always been part and parcel of teaching."

The teacher's name has been changed to protect her identity.