Three children rescued a kitten after finding it trapped inside a plastic bag dumped in a dustbin outside their school.

The three boys, Max Barry, Oscar Liusder and Kamarl Richards, Year 5 pupils at Gordon Children’s Academy in Strood, discovered the kitten while playing football at the end of the school day.

Oscar, nine, said: “I heard a meow but I thought it was just a cat passing by, then Max kicked a ball and I went to go and get it with Kamarl, I heard the noise even more and opened the bin and we found it.”

Teachers were heading to their cars to set off home when the boys hurried back, carrying the plastic bag, asking for staff to help them.

Oscar said: “We ran over to the teachers that were coming out of school and they took it to the vet for us.”

He added: “I feel really happy and proud that we brought him to safety.”

Kamarl, 10, said: “The kitten was so small, it was grey and it had blue eyes, but the bag was really smelly.”

“I heard the cat but I didn’t think it was going to be in the bin.”

The tiny animal had been left in the bag that was filled with its own excrement.

Max Barry, who is also 10, said: “When we found him and pulled the bag out of the bin he was making a lot of noise.

“I was so angry that someone left it in the bin, but I am happy that we saved him, otherwise he might have died.”

Senior leader Clare Dixon decided they needed to take the kitten to the vet.

She said: “A group of us took it to the Stanhope Road vet and we stayed there with him until he had been seen.

"The vet told us that he was only four weeks old, but he was OK and there was nothing wrong with him.”

“He was just dirty and really smelly, the poor thing.”

The kitten has now been called Teddy after Year 5 pupils at the school chose the name.

"He is now being looked after by teaching assistant Jessica Yelton, 22.

She said: “I rang my mum and told her I would be bringing him home.

"At the moment we have to feed him through a bottle because he is still so small, but we are hoping to keep looking after him."