TEACHERS will strike next year if they don’t get a proper pay rise, union leaders have warned.

NASUWT general secretary Matt Wrack said that talks of strikes were “inevitable” at the teachers’ union conference next April without improvements to pay and conditions.

In May, the government accepted the teachers pay review body’s recommendations for a 4 per cent pay rise for this academic year, but will only fund 3 per cent of it, with the rest to come from “productivity gains and smarter spending.”

Mr Wrack told the Independent that the recommendation is “unhelpful” when teachers’ real earnings “have fallen over the past 15 years.”

He said that schools were caught in a “vicious cycle” because teacher pay rises had to come out of existing already overstretched school budgets, warning PM Sir Keir Starmer they are “not convinced that change is being delivered, either adequately enough or quickly enough.”

National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman added that there is a “real possibility of industrial difficulties” next year as teachers may no longer tolerate the “burden of pressure” being placed on them.

The number of state primary and nursery school teachers in England dropped by nearly 3,000 in 2024, according to the latest School Workforce Census.

The Department for Education said: “Through our Plan for Change, we are restoring teaching as the highly valued profession it should be. 

“Despite deeply challenging choices about public spending, mainstream school funding will rise again next year, reaching almost £51 billion, to help every child to achieve and thrive.”