Hundreds of Huddersfield teachers took part in a one-day strike to protest over pay, pensions and working conditions.

The industrial action – which shut dozens of schools across Kirklees and Calderdale – was organised by two of England’s biggest teaching unions, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the NASUWT.

The strike affected tens of thousands of schoolchildren as teachers walked out in Yorkshire, Humberside, the East Midlands and the east of England.

The government has condemned the move, saying it is disappointed that the unions have decided to strike.

Striking teachers and their supporters took their stand outside Honley High School as they were joined by supporters for a picket.

Dr Dylan Murphy, the school’s National Union of Teachers’ representative, said the Government would not take part in meaningful negotiations and were being “very aggressive towards unions”.

He said history was repeating itself in a bizarre echo of the 1980s when there was a teacher “retention crisis”.

Teachers in their 50s were leaving the profession “in their droves because of the attack on their pensions”.

He said: “Parents have to wake up to what Government is doing to education.”

Another on the picket line was Roger Keely, a history teacher at the school for 23 years, who retired in 1994 for health reasons.

He said: “It was absolutely necessary to mount a defence of working conditions, salaries and pensions.”

Many teachers from schools across the Yorkshire region attended a major protest rally in Sheffield to air their grievances.

The vice-president on the NUT, Max Hyde, said teachers were angry about numerous aspects of the Government’s education policy.

Acknowledging that many of them were angry at what they feel is Mr Gove’s personal “disregard” for their profession, Ms Hyde said: “This strike is about our concerns about what Mr Gove is doing to education, about teachers’ working conditions, about his mission to deregulate pay and also to restore our pensions.

“Teachers are very angry at the moment.

“We have taken a very, very difficult step to come out on strike because Mr Gove is not listening to us.”

A DfE spokeswoman said: “It is disappointing that the NUT and NASUWT are striking over the government’s measures to allow heads to pay good teachers more.”

Further strikes are expected to take place on October 17 in the North East, South East, South West and London.

Plans for a national one-day walkout before Christmas have also been announced by the two unions.