Funding, low pay, and ever-decreasing staff numbers were at the forefront of reasons that County Durham's teachers gave for striking today. 

Wednesday was deemed "walkout Wednesday", with strikes staged by teachers, civil servants, university staff, and train and bus drivers. 

There has been a massive disruption in schools across England and Wales as teachers stage the first walkout since 2016. This industrial action is the latest in a dispute over pay, funding, and staffing.

In County Durham, the striking workers only knew of one school where none of the teachers were out on strike. The remaining 268 schools saw significant disruption, with many only being able to run one or two classes. 

Read more: LIVE: Hundreds of teachers in North East strike over pay

With around 100,000 teachers from 23,000 schools out on strike, The National Education Union estimates around 85 per cent of schools faced some kind of disruption today. 

Forming picket lines outside of their schools, many teachers from County Durham said that they felt as though they had no choice but to go on strike, for the sake of their pupils. 

Speaking to The Northern Echo, Frank Wilson, a teacher at The Meadows School in Spennymoor, explained that he had come to picket lines because stagnant funding is detrimentally impacting his pupils' education. 

Catering to students who have social, emotional, and mental health needs, Frank says that The Meadows is in higher demand than ever. 

He said: "Our children come from the most deprived areas, and our niche is more needed than ever. The school is full, because academies don't want the kind of child that we take on.

"We kept going and stayed open all through the pandemic because of our student's needs. We paid for everything out of our school budget then, from PPE to meals for the children. 

"We have been in a budget deficit ever since."

Read more: University of Sunderland to open £250 million campus in London

Running a school that caters for pupils with special needs poses its own set of difficulties. Frank explained that because some students can be volatile, class sizes are limited, and each class is supposed to have two teachers. 

But stagnant funding in the face of increasing inflation is putting these measures at risk, and teachers have found themselves struggling to adequately support students. 

Frank said: "We have students who are in year 10 and can't read. Our children need a lot of support. We are striking for a properly funded education system and a properly funded pay rise.

"There is all this talk about levelling up, but they are not levelling up education and that is where it all starts."

Low recruitment was a main issue bringing teachers and support staff to the rally in Durham's Market Square. 

Many teachers have seen a huge increase in turnover among their colleagues and a lower number of graduates pursuing teaching as a career. 

As head of RE at Hermitage School in Chester-le-Street, Paul Welch has noticed a similar trend over his 20-year teaching career. 

Paul said: "When I started, we had far more staff - particularly support staff like teaching assistants and pastoral care. There is so much more placed on us as teaching practitioners, which impacts vulnerable learners.

"Schools will probably see more support staff redundancies, but these are key and vital for pupils. 

"No one takes strike action lightly, some of us are the only stable adult in someone's life. But we have to see more resources and funding from the Government."

Read next:

Many believe that teaching's recruitment problem lives in its low wages and large workload - and are hopeful that government support on these issues could see an uptick in the number of people wanting to be teachers. 

Paul said: "We have to have a wage that is comparable to hours and workload. Though austerity we say zero per cent rises, and now our wages aren't even in line with inflation."

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan defended the government's record on school funding and told BBC Breakfast it "makes no sense to give inflation-busting pay rises to some of the workforce" at a time when prices are rising for everyone.

Most state school teachers in England and Wales had a 5% pay rise in 2022 - though teachers say this came out of school budgets, rather than directly from Government.