Schools in Beds, Herts and Bucks affected by teachers' strike

About 200 teachers gathered outside Luton Town hall for a rally at lunchtime

A teacher taking part in a one-day strike has said if they "had any other choice, they would do it".

Dave Mingay from the National Education Union (NEU) joined hundreds of other teachers at a lunchtime rally in Luton.

Just over 100 have informed Buckinghamshire Council that they were either closed or partially open.

There were no figures available yet for the local education authorities in Milton Keynes, Hertfordshire, Central Bedfordshire, Bedford or Luton.

Dave Mingay from the NEI said teachers are worth "at least an inflation pay rise"

Figures are estimated because schools are not obliged to tell the councils about closure and academies do not report to the council.

• Teachers across England and Wales walk out

• How does a school prepare for strike action?

• Teachers' strike is not just about pay - union

The strike across England and Wales is the first of seven scheduled days of industrial action organised by the NEU following a vote by members as part of a dispute over pay.

The union has said it estimated about 23,000 schools to be affected on Wednesday.

The Department for Education (DfE) has said it expected head teachers to take all reasonable steps to keep schools open for as many pupils as possible.

Teachers are in dispute over pay which they say has "fallen significantly behind other graduate professions"

About 200 teachers gathered outside Luton Town hall for the rally.

Mr Mingay told the BBC that teachers' pay was "falling significantly behind other graduate professions and we really put the hours in".

He said that teachers were worth "at least an inflation pay rise".

"Teaching is an incredibly stressful job - we've got teachers working 50-60 plus hours a week," he said.

"It can't carry on like this and what we want is teachers in the classroom teaching, we don't want to be out on strike... the government has to get serious.

"If we had any other choice we would do it."

The full picture of school closures over the three counties is not yet known

Speaking outside Chalk Hills Academy in the town's Leagrave area, Ashley Race, 28, who has been a teacher for three years, said: "We are burnt out - it's what we're all feeling right now.

"It's full on, it's not just a 9-5 job. When I go home I'm probably still working until nine o'clock making lesson plans, doing other things, trying to make it fun for the kids, but at the moment we're struggling because we're working so hard, we don't have time to do anything for ourselves."

He added he was "absolutely gutted" to be on strike because he had pupils about to take important exams.

"I need to be there for them, but also I need to make a stand," he said.

"I want to start a family and currently what I'm on I'm struggling."

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan defended the government's record on school funding and told BBC Breakfast it "makes no sense to give inflation-busting pay rises to some of the workforce" at a time when prices were rising for everyone.

She added that she had held five meetings with union leaders in recent weeks.

For the latest on the strike actions, follow the BBC's live page.