Hundreds of teachers took the campaign to defend their industry from Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove to public spaces across Britain on Saturday.

Front-line teachers spoke to people about damaging Tory plans to privatise schools through the back door at dozens of street stalls.

The action was part of the National Union of Teachers' Stand Up for Education campaign.

It came as the union's 324,000 members prepare to launch their first national strike since the Tories took power.

NUT leader Christine Blower said her members "deeply regret" that around 1,000 schools face closure on Wednesday.

But she warned: "The government's refusal to engage to resolve the dispute means that we have no alternative other than to demonstrate the seriousness of our concerns."

Teachers are opposed to Mr Gove's plans to force them to stay in the classroom until they're 68 to claim a pension.

The Tory hardliner is also planning to rip up national pay bargaining and hand powers over to individual head teachers.

Teachers also face a campaign by Mr Gove to make them complete more administration tasks and strip them of time to prepare lessons.

Ms Blower added: "Teachers' levels of workload are intolerable.

"Two in five teachers are leaving the profession in the first five years. This is bad for children and bad for education."

Teachers will be swapping classrooms for one of over 30 strike rallies taking place across England and Wales.

That includes a picket of BBC'S Broadcasting House in London in protest at the public service broadcaster's history of unfair strike coverage.