Thousands of children face being barred from school after teaching assistants voted for “sustained” strikes this summer.

Classroom assistants and school support staff voted for strike action along with nearly one million other public sector workers over below-inflation pay deals.

Members of Unison, Britain’s largest public sector union, voted by 55 per cent to take industrial action after rejecting a 2.45 per cent pay offer. The union’s negotiators will decide tomorrow on the length of the strikes and what action to recommend to the national strike committee later this week.

Unison represents more than 200,000 classroom assistants and school support staff who will join picket lines this summer, which could force hundreds of schools to close.

A spokesperson for Unison said: "The strike won't just effect classroom support staff it will include dinner ladies, administration staff, cleaners, a whole raft of school staff will be involved in it, schools across the country will have to close." The strikes will be timed to cause maximum disruption and the union will attempt to call the strike before the end of the summer term, the spokesperson said.

Britain’s 500,000 teaching assistants and school support staff, who now outnumber teachers, were offered a pay increase of 2.45 per cent – the same as that offered to teachers that sparked a national strike by the NUT in April when three million children in England lost a day's schooling when teachers walked out.

A report last week, by the trade union Unison, accused head teachers of using the UK’s 177,000 classroom assistants as ‘teachers on the cheap’ and called for tighter controls on their employment.

Teaching assistants say they are expected to do the job of teachers on a fraction of the wage. Salaries for classroom helpers start at just £15,000 compared to £20,133 for teachers.

The number of teachers in England has risen by just 10 per cent over the last ten years - from 399,000 in 1998 to 440,000 now. But the number of teaching assistants has rocketed by almost 200 per cent over the same period from 61,000 to 177,000.

Dave Prentis, the union’s general secretary, said: “This is a solid vote for action and a clear message to the local government employers that our members are willing to fight for a decent pay rise.”

“They are fed up and angry that they are expected to accept pay cut after pay cut while bread and butter prices go through the roof.

Heather Wakefield, Unison’s head of local government, said: “The employers should be in no doubt: the members have voted for a programme of sustained and escalating strike action because they are sick of being treated as the poor relations of the public sector.

Almost 600,000 workers were balloted, including social workers, housing benefit workers, teaching assistants, dinner ladies, cooks, cleaners, architects and refuse collectors.

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