The NEU held the first of seven planned strike days today in a dispute over pay.

After a day that saw between 40,000 and 50,000 people join marches in London, Tes rounds up how the day looked on the ground.

The teachers who took part in strike action today and spoke to Tes from picket lines and rallies across the country said it is a “joke” for the education secretary to say they are “letting pupils down”.

Teachers said that they don’t want to be on strike and “none of us want to be out the classroom” but “we have to do this in order for students’ education to improve”.

Primary teacher Gina, who has been in the profession for five years and was out on the march in London today, warned that so many people she trained with “have already left” teaching. 

She added: “The workload is completely unsustainable; the cuts to funding have made the job a lot harder.”

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Teachers also warned that they were struggling with high costs in London as rents soar and the cost-of-living crisis bites. 

Assistant head Marianne said her school had “so many teachers leaving at the end of the year because they can’t afford to live in London”. 

“We have to do something now because otherwise, in three or four years, your children won’t have enough teachers.”

And maths teacher Tom told Tes that today’s strike action was about “short-term pain for long-term gain”.

“We know today that we are costing a day of education but if things carry on the way that they are currently going then it’s going to cost a lot more in the future.”

Sarah Thompson, NEU branch secretary in Lambeth, told Tes teachers were striking because “education is in crisis”. 

She said “our schools are underfunded” and that children, “particularly vulnerable” pupils and those with special educational needs and disabilities, are suffering.

“We are on our knees.”

Parents: ‘Teachers are amazing’

It wasn’t just teachers waving NEU flags today in London.

Plenty of parents of school-age pupils were also out in the capital in solidarity with those in charge of their children’s education. 

One mother told Tes they were out in solidarity because teachers are “not paid enough, they’re not supported enough and they’re amazing”.

Another mother who works as a part-time teacher told Tes she is “aware of how hard things are at school and how important it is that we’re fully funded”.

She thought the comments made by education secretary Gillian Keegan that teachers walking out today are letting pupils down are “just trying to get the public off our side but I think the public understand how important schools are”.

Second-year early career primary school teachers Miriam, Mia and Raina said they were walking out for “better pay” and “better working conditions”.

While they “all love” the job, they say things will need to change for them to stay in the profession long term. 

‘Gillian Keegan, we are very disappointed in you’

Speaking outside Downing Street today, NEU joint general secretary Mary Bousted reacted to the education secretary’s comment that she was “disappointed” that teachers were striking.

Dr Bousted said: “I have to tell Gillian Keegan: we are very disappointed with you. We are very disappointed that your government has sat on its hands and done nothing month after month in the cynical belief that we would not meet the ballot threshold.

And Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said that he and the school leaders’ union “offer our support to those colleagues taking action today”.

Referring to the recent strike ballot of NAHT members, which failed to meet the legal threshold, Mr Whiteman said the union would “ballot our members again if no progress is made”. 

He added that it was the government “alone” that was responsible for the “decline in teaching careers”.

“My appeal to government is to end the meetings of empty offers designed to provide only a veneer of negotiation and instead enter meaningful talks. But until then, colleagues, I say to you: stand firm and stand strong.

“This is about saving education for children.”

Rallies around the country

Teachers also attended union rallies marking the strike action in other parts of England and Wales.

At an event in Halifax, West Yorkshire, this morning, Calderdale’s NEU branch secretary Hamish Heald said he hoped the walkout would demonstrate the need for the government to start negotiating on pay.

He said: “We called the strike today because there has been years and years of underfunding for schools, we have seen teacher pay go down by between 10 and 20 per cent over the last decade or so and enough is enough. It is time for the government to negotiate.”

Calderdale @NEUnion branch secretary Hamish Heald says today’s strike is the culmination of school funding and teachers’ wages declining “over years and years.” pic.twitter.com/QuUWSBGUYd

— John Roberts (@JohnGRoberts) February 1, 2023

Calderdale NEU branch president Dan Whittall added: “We are on strike because education funding is in a shambolic state - we know support staff workers are underpaid and overworked; we know our teacher members are underpaid and overworked.

“A pay rise that is below inflation is a pay cut. We know that students’ learning conditions are staff’s working conditions, and if our working conditions are not up to scratch, that impacts on our children.

“We are really sympathetic to parents who have had to struggle today. We understand how difficult it is when teachers take strike action and we’d far rather be in a classroom, but we know how important this cause is.”

Further north, in Newcastle, hundreds of people marched through the city on a TUC-organised right-to-strike march.

Peter Jeffrey, who teaches at a primary school in Byker, Newcastle, said: “I’ve not had a real pay increase for 10 years. I’m effectively earning less than I was a decade ago.

“Any future pay rise is to come out of school budgets, meaning I have to think whether anything I get will impact colleagues like teaching assistants or dinner ladies, as well as things such as school trips, pencils and books. That puts us in a very difficult situation. And this is from a government that blew up the economy and now can’t find money for hardworking nurses and teachers.”

Fiona Robertson, who teaches at a primary school in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, held a banner saying she would rather be teaching, but she explained why the strike was important.

“If you really want to know, parents, talk to your child’s teacher about the conditions in school and what they have to put up with, to make the best of a bad job and to do the best for the children. Today, we are striking on behalf of everyone, ourselves, the children, the future.”