Hundreds of Kent schoolchildren ditched lessons this morning to join worldwide protests against climate change.

The pupils, joined by university students and younger children with their parents, congregated in Canterbury outside Whitefriars shopping centre to call for urgent action on global warming.

The demonstration comes after thousands of young people across the UK took part in a Youth Strike 4 Climate march in February, this time joined by their peers in more than 100 countries around the world from Spain and Germany to Japan, Nepal and Mauritius.

Some in school uniform, while others were pushed along in buggies by their parents, the demonstrators made their way through the city centre chanting "keep the carbon in the soil" before finishing at the bandstand in Dane John Gardens.

Among those protesting is Toby Child, a Year 9 pupil at Simon Langton Boys' Grammar, who was given permission to skip geography, drama and maths lessons to take part.

He says critics of the last march - some of whom labelled pupils missing lessons to take part as "truants" - has strengthened his resolve to campaign for a greener future.

"We've come out for the same reason as last time. That's to campaign for a world that is safe to live in in the future," he explains.

"We're protesting again because the reaction last time was not what we were looking for. We were just called silly and asked why we were leaving school. So we just have to keep going, to make sure that we get the change that we need.

"I think three lessons is less important than a life where my house isn't underwater."

His friend Theo Parker-Banks, who also attends Langton Boys, said: "I think that the real problem is that young people aren't taken seriously by older politicians, and they're the people that we need to introduce changes.

"You can live a greener lifestyle, you can go vegan or whatever it is, but the real problem is corporations and the sheer amount of CO2 they emit. If we can get the government to place sanctions on CO2 emissions, then we can really slow down the progression of climate change.

"There aren't many avenues through which we can get politicians to listen. This is the way that we have collectively decided to get their attention.

"If they shrug this protest off, like the last one, we'll keep going until they consider us a real movement."

Sam Brookfield, who attends Dover Grammar School for Boys, said: "We're really sick of politicians just ignoring everything that scientists, and young people are saying. It's getting to the point where we just need to do it ourselves."

"We want climate justice, and some sort of green deal, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pushing in America."

Millie Manners, who also made the trip to Canterbury from Dover after being given permission to miss biology, says that "if there's no planet, then there's won't be any lessons to go to into the future anyway".

"Education is important, but this is more important."

Their friend Catherine Rowe added: "You can catch up on education, but climate change is going to happen. You can't re-do the climate."

One of the event's organisers, Hannah Pepe, a 23-year-old wildlife conservation student at the University of Kent, says youngsters have taken to the streets again because the government still isn't doing enough to tackle global warming.

"It's going to be an ongoing issue until the government gets their act together. Climate change isn't going to stop, so why should we?" she said.

Sam Greenslade, a 20-year-old biology student, added: "It's our future. Prime Minister Theresa May says that kids should be in school, so that they can make a difference when they grow up, but the average age of an MP is 50.

"We only have 11 years to act. The maths doesn't add up."

The day of action is inspired by 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg, who hit global headlines after she held a solo protest outside her country's parliament every Friday last summer.

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