More than half of secondary schools will be closed to at least some students during Wednesday’s teacher strike, polling suggests.

Teaching staff in the NEU union are set to walk out on Wednesday in strike action over pay, after eleventh-hour talks failed to bring a resolution to the pay dispute this afternoon.

In the survey of 8,199 teachers on Sunday by survey app Teacher Tapp, 53 per cent of secondary teachers said that their school would be closed to at least some students, with an extra 14 per cent saying they would be closed to all.

Among primary teachers, 35 per cent said their school would be closed for some pupils, alongside 14 per cent who said it would be closed to all.

Overall, across primary and secondary schools:

• 14 per cent said their school would be closing for all pupils.
• 44 per cent their school would close for some pupils.
• 30 per cent said it would not close.
• 9 per cent did not know yet.
• 3 per cent could not answer.

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There will likely be some regional differences in terms of the numbers of closures. London had the highest proportion of teachers saying their schools would close for all pupils (23 per cent), compared with the Midlands, which had the lowest proportion, at 9 per cent.

The NEU teaching union said earlier today that the education secretary had “squandered an opportunity to avoid strike action on Wednesday”, after last-ditch talks.

Teacher strike to go ahead after talks fail

Union leaders met with Gillian Keegan this afternoon after previous negotiations failed to reach a resolution to the pay dispute.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, told Tes that, in the meeting today, the NEU spoke with the education secretary about “the importance of really negotiating” instead of having “performative meetings”.

She said: “We made it absolutely clear that we do want to see a resolution to this dispute, but that’s going to involve serious negotiations about serious issues like pay, both for this year and in the longer term.”

There are no dates set for further talks but Dr Bousted said more talks were “promised”.

The Department for Education was contacted for comment on the talks today.