Striking teachers have taken to the streets today as mass demonstrations over pay and conditions led to schools being closed across the county.

Hundreds are taking industrial action with a large march happening in Canterbury while their collegaues took to picket lines outside schools throughout Kent and Medway.

Many gathered at the Westgate Hall this morning before walking through the city centre brandishing banners and placards bearing slogans highlighting feelings of teachers being "undervalued, overworked and undermined".

Parents have been forced to make last-minute childcare arrangements, amid uncertainty over what staffing levels will be.

Some schools have remained open only for the children of key workers.

Further disruption is being caused by rail workers who have also gone on strike - with no Southeastern services running on Wednesday or Friday.

Meanwhile, industrial action is also being taken by some civil servants and university lecturers.

Teachers, who are striking for the first time in decades, are attending a series of protest rallies across the county today - including in Dover, Canterbury, Maidstone and the Medway towns.

Andrea Kite, National Education Union rep and teacher at St Anselm's Catholic School in Canterbury, was with colleagues on the picket line outside the school in Old Dover Road and explained why they had decided to walk out.

"If this pay rise isn't fully-funded by the government, it comes from our school budget - which means that we'll have less money available to do the things that we really want to do with our students, so our students will suffer," she said.

"When staff leave mid-year they won't be replaced, and that's the issue.

"It's for our students, to give them a better education.

"We see our bills going up don't we, not just in the supermarket, but our fuel bills, etc. And what money we are being offered just isn't even going to cover that.

"I think something like 44% of new teachers leave within the first five years of teaching. In the past 10 years the government has missed its target for teacher recruitment in nine of those 10 years.

"People just don't want to come into teaching because it just isn't worth it. They can get better paid jobs elsewhere with the qualifications."

Speaking after the rally in Canterbury, union member and Ramsgate teacher Holly Williams told KentOnline it is wrong to see the dispute as purely about pay.

The 43-year-old primary school teacher said: "Schools already have such small budgets, they're already stretched, and then with the energy crisis on top of that things are getting really, really desperate.

"We want to support our students, our children, our support staff colleagues, those are the people that feel it the most.

"So it's not just saying we want an above inflation wage rise. We want it funded properly, that's really the point of it, it's not just 'give us more money'.

"It's give our children the appropriate amount of money that they deserve and make an education system that actually is going to work and not leave children behind."

Attending the march from Turner Free School in Folkestone were colleagues Matt Conmee and Katie Dale.

Mr Conmee, 24, said: "Every day, I've gone into work and I've had a teacher talk to me about why they're thinking of leaving this year.

"I've only just started teaching and it's really disheartening to see that the whole sector has fallen apart.

"There's not enough funding to pay for basic things that the kids need so they can get their education, there's not enough funding to pay teachers properly so that we can actually do the jobs that we're there to do.

"Teachers go home every night and do two hours more work.

"I've seen some of them come into the staff room, break down in tears, and then go home and do more work and think about the job the whole night through, only to come in the next day and do it all over again.

"To see it fall in apart just as I'm starting is just terrifying and something needs to be done to stop that."

In the north of the county, a picket line was set up outside Northfleet School for Girls.

Art teacher Jacob Smith, 29, from Gillingham said: "All teachers across the country are sick and tired of the funding cuts for school. It's not so much the pay but the funding for education.

"They gave us that 5% pay rise but they asked the school to pay for it, which is an issue in itself. I see staff overworked, then their pay does not reflect how much they are working.

"We are almost made to feel guilty. Our students are like our second kids and we want to be there for them but we also want to be recognised for how much work we put in to the future of our world.

"We are literally educating our future and it doesn't feel like we are respected as the educators.

"That 5% pay the budget will be coming out of my art resources so I won't be able to buy things like clay or certain paints because they are too expensive for me to buy, which means the curriculum won't be the same as pupils from a different school who have a bigger budget, so then my kids are going to miss out on things they can't be educated on."

While English teacher Mary Smith, 29, from Dartford, added: "I think it's really important that people understand what our message is.

"It's not just about us wanting more pay. It's about more funding. We need our schools to be fully funded.

"We're already at a point in the year when I can't give our text books to my kids anymore because we've run out of them.. I'm bringing resources in from home. I got highlighters for my Christmas present to bring in for the students. It really is a bit of an emergency and we need the public to understand that and they have been incredibly supportive today."

Mary, who has been teaching for eight years, added: "People often think we are being greedy because we have these long holidays and we do, but we also work a lot during our holidays. I'm running an intervention this half term.

"But it's about the funding schools need to provide the students with resources. I'm using text books that are literally falling apart and stuck together with sellotape."

Fellow English teacher Katie Green, 29, from Dartford added: "We are not just here for the money. We care massively about our students. We want to make sure they have the best possible education and the best possible futures, and the government need to fund us properly to allow us to do that.

Teachers from the National Education Union rallied this morning at Brenchley Gardens in Maidstone, armed with banners and placards.

Ben Webster-Whiting, 48, from Oakwood Park Grammar School – which was closed to students due to the walk-out – said: "I believe that teachers are not as valued as much as they should be.

"They deserve more for what they do. I do not think the government values us and we need to show enough is enough.

"We do not want to disrupt the student's education but I think we have to take a stand and show the government how upset we are with the situation."

He was joined by colleague Paul Lindsay, 48. He added: "I have seen a systematic degradation in funding for schools and we have struggled to recruit staff when we have vacancies.

"I have worked in schools in the past and recently where entire departments are staffed by people who are not subject specific.

"They have been drafted in by other places and they themselves feel that they are not supported in teaching in their subject and we need some investment.

"The kids need the investment to unlock those opportunities in their future.

"We do not feel we are supported in that by the government. When it comes down to it they are not prepared to put the funding in the right direction which is in education. That is the future.

"We feel the student's education has been limited much more directly by not having access to the right members of staff.

"We feel this is the last resort. This is the first time I have done anything like this and many of my colleagues feel the same.

"We wrestled with it quite a lot before we made the decision. It is still something we think about carefully."

Rosie Morrison, 32, works Crockenhill Primary School in Swanley and is new to the industry.

"I think having come from a private and commercial background, I've realised how difficult teaching is," she explained.

"I trained during Covid, when there was a lot more respect - now I believe we have been taken for granted and schools are totally underfunded."

Lucy Boyden works as a primary music specialist at the Valley Invicta Academies Trust.

She said: "I'm striking today on behalf my colleagues - past and present - a lot of them can't be here because of missing out a days pay.

"The resources for my subject are few and far between. The schools that I work in, as much as they are so supportive and I love them very much, we just don't have the funding to fully resource my subject.

"Hopefully the government will be able to see the value in music and how much it's going to help the children who have suffered because of Covid.

"My son Zachary is three years old, and I'll be looking at schools for him next year - I want his future to be as bright as it possibly can be."

The 29-year-old qualified as a teacher in 2015, and has noticed a number of changes in recent years.

She added: "Many of my colleagues have found the job too stressful and dropped out.

"Even I have thought about it - if I didn't have the job I have today I don't think I would be teaching right now.

"It's just too much."

KentOnline reported last week how a number of schools are planning to shut completely, while others have vowed to remain open.

Some head teachers even warned they might not be able to announce any closures until the morning of the first day of industrial action.

Union leaders have defended teachers, saying the strikes are intended to highlight not just the issue of their pay but their workload.

Paul Reynolds of the NEU's Kent branch said: “I have been teaching for 23 years and have never known such strength of feeling. There will be a big impact on both primary and secondary schools.”

He says the issue for teachers was not just around pay, but workload.

“Over the last 10 years we have seen a whittling away of pay so much so that we have lost 20% of our spending power - that is enormous," Mr Reynolds said.

"We have slipped so far behind the private sector we are struggling to recruit graduates for specialist areas and to keep hold of them.

"Young teachers who do join us are dropping out in huge numbers as well because of pressure and because of pay that falls behind other graduate jobs.

“I have lots of colleagues across the county who have just had enough and are walking away.

"These are really good experts people in their field.”

Asked what he would say to parents who faced disruption because of the strike, he said: “We are sorry. I can understand why parents feel angry. I am angry too.

"We don't want a strike. We have been negotiating with your government for 10 years about the crisis and recruitment and retention but they just won’t listen.

“We work hard but we are under-paid and undervalued and enough is enough.

"I am sure parents want their children to be taught by experts. That is good for them and for the good of the country and society.

"These kids are going to be leading the country and driving the economy. We want them to be taught by experts and to be taught by experts now.”

Expected teacher strike days in Kent

• February 1: All schools in England and Wales
• March 2: South-east and south-west England, and London
• March 15 and 16: All schools in England and Wales

Mr Reynolds says any deal reached between the two sides needed to ensure that any pay increases were met nationally and not from school budgets.

"We have got to get them [the government] to recognise this is a crisis affecting every single school," he added.

Talks aimed at averting the strike did take place but no agreement could be reached.

Further talks are expected to take place before the next day of strike action.

The walkout is part of a wave of strikes across the public sector, with firefighters the latest to vote for industrial action.