Up to half a million workers went on strike on Wednesday – with large numbers of state schools in England forced to close their doors.
More than half (54%) were either fully closed or restricting access to pupils as teachers took industrial action, the Department for Education suggested.
The walkouts, which also involved civil servants, rail workers, bus drivers, border force workers and university staff, were the biggest in a decade.
The action is centred around demands for pay rises matching inflation, which ministers say they can’t afford.
Civil servant Ellie Clarke, 31, who works at the Cabinet Office, said she was “one pay cheque away from homelessness” after a decade of real-terms cuts to her wages.
Ms Clarke said she is “terrified every day” as food costs and bills spiral in the cost of living crisis.
“We are just living in poverty. There is absolutely no chance we could go to the theatre or even just have some dinner with friends,” she commented.
Primary school teacher Clodagh Glaisyer-Sidibe was on strike in Lewisham with a placard designed to “turn heads”.
It read: “I could make more £s on this pole.”
She explained: “As a slightly older woman, I didn’t feel I’d be making a lot of money as a pole dancer.
“So it’s showing just how little we’re getting.”
Tom Herzmark, a temporary lecturer at Brunel University, said it was “actually embarrassing to talk about my pay”.
“I had six different part-time contracts last year but my income was still below the tax-free allowance,” he told Sky News.
The tax-free threshold is £12,570. Tom lives with a friend to save on rent but says his earnings still aren’t enough to live on.
“I’ve had to make difficult decisions about when I spend my money. I don’t go on holidays. I don’t go to the pub. I don’t buy coffees, because it’s all too expensive,” he said.
“I’m paying to do the job with the hope that I will get a full-time position.”
Hannah and Joe both teach at a primary school in Cardiff
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In Walthamstow, northeast London, seven-year-old Daisy Halford joined her father on the picket line.
Holding a placard saying “This is our future” she said schools needed more money.
Her father is a secondary school teacher. Daisy said: “Our schools aren’t getting enough money and the government is taking money from our schools.
“I would like to get more money for our schools.”
Peter Jeffrey, 48, who teaches at a primary school in Byker, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 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.”
