Lewisham Glass Mill: National Education Union teachers strike

The walkouts, which could see more than 100,000 teachers go on strike, is the first of seven days of action planned by the NEU in February and March.

Strikers from across the unions gathered outside Glass Mill Leisure Centre in Lewisham, south east London, to board Routemaster buses to travel into central London for the Protect The Right To Strike march and rally.

Strikers from across the unions gathered outside Glass Mill Leisure Centre in Lewisham (Image: PA)

• READ MORE: Schools close in south east London as teachers strike: Live

The teachers are joining university staff, train drivers, civil servants, bus drivers and security guards who will all strike today in what is set to be the biggest day of industrial action in more than a decade.

Strikers board Routemaster buses to travel into central London for the Protect The Right To Strike march and rally (Image: PA)

Two-year-old Nancy Moon joined strikers from across the unions who gathering outside Glass Mill Leisure Centre in Lewisham.

Two-year-old Nancy Moon (Image: PA)

She held a bright green sign which reads “protect my education”.

One man holds a placard which exclaims: “I’d rather be teaching but this is important.”

Some schools are due to close their doors to all pupils on Wednesday as a result of the strikes, with children told to stay at home.

Strikers board Routemaster buses to travel into central London for the Protect The Right To Strike march and rally (Image: PA)

Other schools will be partially closed so they can prioritise children who would benefit most from in-person teaching, such as those sitting exams as well as vulnerable pupils and key workers’ children.

strikers from across the unions who gathering outside Glass Mill Leisure Centre in Lewisham (Image: PA)

Eben Rogers (right), 8, and Jack Rogers, 6, also joined the strikers outside Glass Mill Leisure Centre in Lewisham - their signs reading “pay up” and “fund our future”.

In some schools, there may be little or no impact from strike action and they will remain open.

Headteachers will carry out risk assessments to work out whether their schools can open safely with reduced staffing numbers.

Eben Rogers (right), 8, and Jack Rogers, 6, (Image: PA)

Teachers from Chelwood Nursery School in Brockley have joined the protest, holding a banner representing their school.

The Government needs to “dial down the invective” in how it speaks about striking teachers, the general secretary of the NEU has said.

Teachers from Chelwood Nursery School (Image: PA)

Speaking outside Bishop Thomas Grant School in Streatham, south London, Dr Mary Bousted told the PA news agency: “I think that the Government really would do well to dial down the invective and the rhetoric and remember that in the end we have got to come to a resolution of this dispute.

Strikers board Routemaster buses to travel into central London for the Protect The Right To Strike march and rally (Image: PA)

“And remember that, in the end, it will be teachers going back into school with views about this Government.

“And, in the end, remember that they’ve got an election coming up really quite soon and there are half a million teachers who, at the moment, don’t think much of them or what they are doing.”