Pupils and teachers stand together on the Wembley picket line

Among those on the picket line was Jenny Cooper, a teacher at Oliver Goldsmiths Primary and the Village School, both in Wembley.

She was joined by her husband Dave, a retired teacher, and her two sons Sam, 15, and Joseph, 13, who are both pupils at Kingsbury High School.

Holding a placard which read ‘some cuts are necessary’ with the faces of Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg next to a guillotine, Mrs Cooper said: “We want to show how strongly we feel that these reforms are not just.

“We are trying to dispel the myth that the media has created that public sector pensions are gold plated

“Many teachers have given their whole working lives to teaching and they get around a �10,000 a year pension. We don’t feel that this is too much.”

Sam, who was on the picket line for the first time in his life, said: “We want to support them. I think the strike is good because it makes a point to show what the teachers think.”