NEARLY 50 pupils at St Laurence School in Bradford on Avon todaymissed their classes to protest against climate change.

The 49 pupils – seven from the lower school and 42 from the sixth form– were among thousands of students across the UK joining the mass strike.

At St Augustine’s Catholic College in Trowbridge, five pupils from Year 11 and above also skipped school to take part in the protest.

Fergus Stewart, head teacher of St Laurence School, said: “We are glad that our students are concerned enough about climate change issues to take action and make their views known.

“However, we do not support their taking time out of school to do this because it will disrupt their learning and it undermines our ability to keep young people safe. The absences for this will not, therefore, be authorised.”

Molly Scott Catto, the Green Party’s MEP for the South West of England, said: “I’m so proud of the young people who are walking out of school today to demand that we address the climate emergency. They are campaigning for a future. I appeal to headteachers to respect them and not punish them.”

Demonstrations were held in Bath and Bristol and other towns and cities organised by youth climate change groups.

The Wiltshire Times has attempted to contact other schools across West Wiltshire to see if their pupils are taking part.

Altogether, students from around 60 towns and cities were taking part in the UK protest campaign inspired by a 16-year-old Swedish student.

Greta Thunberg has been skipping school every Friday to protest outside the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm.

Former United Nations climate chief, Christiana Figueres, praised the youngsters, saying it was “time to heed the deeply moving voice of youth”.

Ms Figueres, who led the historic 2015 Paris agreement, said the fact that children were so worried about their future they were prepared to strike should make adults take urgent action.

“It is a sign that we are failing in our responsibility to protect them from the worsening impacts of climate change,” she said.

Initial reports suggested thousands of children walked out of lessons in protest at the mounting ecological crisis.

Several hundred congregated in Brighton and Oxford by mid-morning and more than 1,000 gathered in Parliament Square in London.

Anna Taylor of the UK Student Climate Network, which helped co-ordinate the action, said: “We’re running out of time for meaningful change and that’s why we’re seeing young people around the world rising up to hold their governments to account on their dismal climate records.

“Unless we take positive action, the future’s looking bleak for those of us that have grown up in an era defined by climate change.”

The movement started in August when Miss Thunberg staged a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament. Now, up to 70,000 schoolchildren each week hold protests in 270 towns and cities worldwide.

Individual protests have previously been held in the UK, but the nationwide action today is the first co-ordinated walk-out.