About 800 Redbridge teachers will join the march on Hyde Park to protest against the speed and depth of government cuts, union leaders claim.

They say that the March for the Alternative event on Saturday will be the biggest protest since the public uprising against the Iraq War in 2003.

Coaches organised by the GMB union will leave Newbridge School, in Barley lane, Seven Kings, and Upney Underground station around 7.30am while other Redbridge protesters are making their way to Victoria Embankment by public transport.

The protesters will march from Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park where they will hold a rally at 1.30pm.

Redbridge divisional secretary for the National Union of Teachers, Kash Mallick, said: “I would be very surprised if there are less than 800 Redbridge teachers at the protest on Saturday.

“This is going to be the second biggest march since the Iraq war. In the 23 years that I have been a teacher there have been a number of marches and usually a handful of members going, but now if you walk into any staff room more than 50 per cent of the teachers will be going.”

Mr Mallick said that members he had spoken to were marching not for themselves but in empathy with other workers being made redundant. He added: “They are marching for their colleagues, for their neighbours and their friends who are losing their jobs.”

Regional organiser for the GMB Union, which represents a range of Redbridge workers, said: “The people I have spoken to are very angry and upset with the government.

“The government needs to understand that people are angry.”

Much of central London will be on lockdown at the weekend, as the authorities prepare for the the influx of protesters. A spokesman for Redbridge police said: “We are sending officers from the borough but at the moment this is under review so we don’t know how many.”