HUNDREDS of young eco-activists gathered at Gostrey Meadow to take part in the international #YouthClimateStrike.

Pupils from schools across Farnham spent last Friday morning at the peaceful protest, all hoping to raise awareness of climate change and sharing their views on the growing issue:

Sophie Rushmere, aged nine, is an “eco representative” for St Peter’s Primary School. She described how her school has solar panels and complete litter picks to help tackle the issue.

She added: “This is our future and we need to protect it.”

Sophie’s mum Victoria Rushmere said: “The kids hear about stuff on the news and on social media and all those places, and it’s really good for them to feel they can make changes.”

She added the planet’s future “will be in their hands eventually” and it is “good for them to be thinking about something greater than themselves”.

Georgie Wilson, artist at Studio 13 in the Maltings, expressed her delight at the turnout and said: “I was imagining pouring rain and five kids, so it is absolutely brilliant. It’s inspiring and it just shows the hunger is there, the movement is already there and the time is right.”

Harriet MacDonald, aged ten, is a pupil at St Peter’s Primary School and said: “I’m a child and I am going to grow up into this world. It is our responsibility because it’s the world we are going to live in when we are adults.”

And Harriet’s mother Christine said: “It is really heartening to see so many people here today and that other people feel the same as we do. The more we can do this, with the younger generations as well, will be fantastic.”

Kiera Sheldon, a 19 year-old who works at Sainsbury’s, attended “to spread the word”.

She added: “Our world is dying and I think everybody needs to notice that and needs to stop putting it on the backburner. It needs to be noticed.”

Mum Liberty Jolliffe went to the strike with her two sons, five year-old William and eight year-old Jamie Craze, and said: “I think they are already understanding the message of climate change and they feel real fear around that.

“Having an absence from school just highlights the fact they are having to take it into their own hands and put their education at risk because nobody else is doing the job for them.”

Year 9 student at Weydon School Ranjeev Gill said: “I felt it was important to miss school because if we were to just do it on any other day, no-one would really care because otherwise we’d just be a bunch of people standing in Gostrey Meadow.”

Fellow Year 9 student, Delphina Hayles is part of the eco council at Weydon School and said: “My reason for striking is because there are a few developments actually going around where I live.

“I feel really passionate about that because I have so many memories there and now they’re just building all these houses and disturbing the wildlife and it’s quite a historical part of town. It’s quite upsetting but I really want to raise awareness of that.”

Youngsters took part in a die-in on the bridge in Gostrey Meadow as part of the protest.

Delphina continued: “It was quite an experience because I feel there was a lot of symbolism there. As organiser Cecily Bedner said, it may be an inconvenience for people walking on the bridge, but it will be even more of an inconvenience when our world is in this state.”

Cicely Woodyer said the event made her feel “a bit awkward”, but had a “big impact because we overheard people getting really mad and not being happy with us”.

She continued: “They said we could do other things apart from this, when that’s not true – clearly just not using a straw isn’t going to make a big enough impact. We need to completely change the way we live.”

Cecily Bedner, aged 20 and a third-year student at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, organised the strike and said: “Believe it or not, kids value their education and none of us actually wants to be here.

“We’re not here to bunk off school. We want to go about our daily lives, as we would normally, and the only reason we’re doing this is because we think we have to.

“We’re not here to have a laugh. We’re not here to have fun – I’d much rather be doing anything else. But we think we have to do it – so listen to what we have to say, because it’s our future we’re trying to protect.”

Teacher Fiona Massari is also an eco-activist and said: “The schools didn’t want us to hand flyers out because they feel their responsibility as educators, which I completely understand as a teacher myself.

“I’m not comfortable with it. I don’t want the children to miss out on their education but I really get that they feel there’s no point being educated if there aren’t going to be any jobs, if there’s going to be the sort of catastrophic consequences we’ve been led to believe there will be because of climate change.

“I think for them to take a few hours out to show what they feel is really, really valid.”