Bedraggled by the rain, an estimated 10,000 striking teachers marched on Westminster in sensible footwear yesterday.

They chanted and blew whistles, before singing along with gusto to Billy Bragg, the lefty protest singer, who provided the entertainment.

The atmosphere was closer to a music festival than an unruly school trip, with one duty policeman heard telling a teacher: “Obviously this is what we’d be doing too if we had the chance”.

The crowd – well-behaved, if a little boisterous – made its way down through Trafalgar Square, down Whitehall and broke out in boos and jeers as it passed Downing Street.

This being a teachers’ event, the large cloth banners made by different London boroughs marched in alphabetical order.

Krissi Carter, a 26-year-old teacher at Addington High School in Croydon, South London, was dressed as Oliver Twist - carrying a begging bowl and a sign saying “Please, sir, can I have some more?”.

“People think we get lots of holidays but we work during them”, she said. “I know teachers signed off with stress because they’re working more than 50 hours a week.”

Adrian Burrell, 64, who teaches at Towers Junior School in Havering is just months from retirement, but joined the strike in support of younger colleagues.

He said: “The young teachers at my school have no chance of getting a house, and food and fuel bills are rocketing. They’ve graduated with £12,000 debt and can’t pay it off.”

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