91Èȱ¬

Hundreds of schools across Northamptonshire are either closed or partially closed as teachers go on strike.

The two biggest teaching unions - the NUT and NASUWT - are in a long-running dispute with the government over pay and pensions. The Government say the strike action will disrupt pupils' learning, inconvenience parents and damage the reputation of teachers.

Thousands of pupils face disruption with parents having to make alternative childcare arrangements, some at the last minute.

On the eve of the strike, reporter Willy Gilder spoke to parents outside Barry Road Primary School in Northampton, and reporter Tom Percival is on the picket line at Kingsthorpe College.

Stuart talks to Gordon White, County Secretary of the NUT, to Claire Morrell, Principal of Abbeyfield Secondary School in Northampton, to striking local secondary school teacher Martin Aldridge, and to Elizabeth Truss, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Education.

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