The atmosphere among the parade of pupils marching towards town to chants and a drumbeat on Friday was electric.

And that was the lasting impression from last week’s school strike against climate change: these kids care about their future and they’re willing to do something about it.

By no means is skipping school something to endorse - how else are we going to have the scientists of tomorrow to, hopefully, sort everything out.

But it is hard to deny how impressive it was to see kids mobilised and organised.

Praise has to go to Stroud’s schools, with staff balancing their safe-guarding duties with a desire to support students in expressing their passion for an environmental cause.

Yes, some pupils probably took it mostly as an opportunity to bunk off and, yes, there was an immense irony to there being leaflets from their environmental protest left littered where they had gathered.

But this newspaper was proud to see that, here in Stroud, our pupils are not just another load of bricks in the wall.