Hundreds march through Liverpool as teachers walk out in biggest strike action in a decade

• Watch as hundreds of people gathered to march through Liverpool to support the strikes

Teachers across the North West have marched through Liverpool as they walk out for the first time in a decade.

Hundreds marched through the city, while picket lines appeared across the region to strike against pay, jobs and conditions.

Many schools closed for the day because of action by the National Education Union (NEU), although some parents only found out on Wednesday morning if their children would have to stay at home.

Civil servants, train and bus drivers and university staff also stopped work on the biggest single day of strikes in a decade.

In Liverpool, strikers and supporters gathered at the city's Metropolitan Cathedral at lunchtime on Wednesday, before marching to the Adelphi Hotel.

ITV Granada Reports Correspondent Ann O'Connor joined the rally to ask why people were taking to the streets.

Graham Copsey from the National Education Union, who spent the morning on a picket line outside Gateacre School in Liverpool, said that while the strikes are about pay, problems in education run deeper:

"Teacher's pay has been systematically cut for the last twelve years. In real terms we've had a 20% cut in our wages, which is the equivalent of working one day for free out of five days a week. It's leading to a crisis in education in recruitment and retention."

"You can't get physics teachers, you can't get chemistry teachers, maths teachers. Because it isn't viable to be teaching. The workload is too high and the pay is too low, so people are finding other jobs to do, so we're having a massive recruitment crisis."

"Teaching Assistants are leaving to go and work in Tesco because they get paid better, and that's ridiculous. We need to value our children, and you value our children by paying the people that work and teach them and support them an appropriate wage."

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said she was disappointed the strikes had gone ahead.

The Conservative Minister also said she had been surprised to learn that teachers were not required to say in advance if they were taking part in Wednesday's strike.

Ms Keegan said the legal position would remain "under review."

"It was a surprise to some of us that was in fact the law. I did write to everybody urging them to be constructive, to let their heads know, and I am sure may teachers will have done that," she told Times Radio.

"There are discussions around minimum service levels, minimum safety levels, around hospitals around rail - education is part of that bill as well.

"We are hoping not to use that, we are hoping to make sure we continue with constructive discussions and relationships but these things will always stay under review."

More strike action has been promised by the National Education Union, should the Education Secretary not return to the table to negotiate.