Thousands of teachers marched through the city centre as they called for better pay and an end to education cuts.
Striking members of the National Education Union took to the streets yesterday, supported by parents and pupils as part of a mass walkout.
The strikes, which meant thousands of children in Brighton and Hove missing school due to a lack of staff, were called in an attempt to force the government to improve the offering to schools after years of pay freezes.
Tim DeMarco, one of the striking teachers, said: "It's not about pay, it's about protecting funding for schools. The government gave a pay rise below inflation but that came out of existing budgets.
"Education isn't being funded. I have seen two or three teachers leave and that's just at my small school.
“The government needs to listen to us."
There was a mass rally at The Level in Brighton before teachers marched through the city banging drums and chanting “no ifs, no buts, no education cuts”.
The crowds stretched all the way from The Clocktower to Brighton Railway Station as other striking unions such as the UCU (University and College Union) and train drivers' union Aslef showed their support for the workers.
Many of the teachers at the march held placards including some reading “Schools just wanna have funds” and “Tories: Requires improvement”.
Protesters then marched past Churchill Square shopping centre and along Western Road before eventually arriving at the Holiday Inn in Brighton seafront.
The route was closed by police officers with buses and traffic affected by the march from around noon, with services returning to normal at around 2pm.
Teachers at the march were from schools across the region including Lewes and Seaford.
Simon Harper and Georgie Anderson, who both teach at St Paul’s Primary in Brighton, said that they have had “a lot of support” from parents who have stood behind the teachers in their industrial action.
Georgie said that the pay rise below inflation that was offered by the government was “worse than giving us nothing”. She added that bringing her children to the march was important as “we don’t want them to think that it’s a day off and not know how important it is”.
Simon added: “It’s such a low workforce that the basics aren’t being covered.”
Meanwhile hundreds gathered outside the Guildbourne Centre in Worthing, with most workers marching with the NEU or Unison unions.
Holly Manning, a teacher at Davison High School for Girls in Worthing, said: “For us, we are early in our teaching career so this is about the future of teaching.
“We want a fair wage for the work we are putting in.”
Her colleague, Sophie Walker, said: “It’s a show of solidarity and to show the government that we are not willing to continue in the state that we are."
Rachel Cohin, NEU representative for Davison High School, said: "It's about funding which has gone down over the course of this Tory government.
"We have had such tiny pay rises. It's unsustainable that there are teachers who can't afford the basics."
Many schools were forced to close as a result of the strikes as a lack of staff meant that lessons could not go ahead.
Brighton and Hove City Council said that of the 48 schools that had contacted it regarding the strikes, 44 had closed fully while four had closed partially.
Many schools had announced that they had provisions in place to make sure vulnerable children and the children of critical workers could still attend.
Phil Clarke, a secondary school teacher and national vice president of the NEU, said: “Every year we present comprehensive evidence to the government about how cutting our pay in real terms means our schools can’t recruit and retain enough teachers.
"Parents know this when they hear that their children are being taught by non-specialists in important subjects or their teachers change frequently as staff move out of the profession.
"Yet year on year the government has ignored this. We have been left no choice but to strike and our ballot result – the biggest by any union since the government brought in even stricter laws restricting the right to strike in 2016 - shows how determined our member are to stand up for their pupils and themselves. “
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