School pupils will only be allowed to skip classes to take part in climate change protests one day a year in Edinburgh.

Thousands of children descended on the Scottish Parliament in March and May and more action is planned for two days in September.

Councillors have now ruled that pupils will only be given one authorised absence per school year to attend the events.

However, officials said anyone who attended multiple events would not be punished as long as they had parental permission.

At last year's rallies, pupils were allowed to take part in the demonstrations with parental permission on a one-off basis.

But council officials warned there was "potential for adverse risk to children who are absent and unsupervised".

They said head teachers did not support authorised absences, prompting councillors to debate the issue.

On Friday, they approved a motion by the SNP-Labour coalition to limit authorised absences to one day per school year - despite a plea from activists.

Youth climate activist and school pupil Sandy Boyd told the meeting it would be "morally wrong" to prevent schoolchildren from protesting.

He said: "The youth climate strike movement has brought change across the world. It will stop this progress dead in its tracks. You are trying to suppress young people's opinions on matters that will affect young people.

"We are imploring this council to allow us authorised absence to pressure governments - finally, we are seeing some action.

"The educational value of taking part in these events is massive. It's building a society that we want to see. We will keep doing them until we see change."

Andy Gray, head of schools at Edinburgh Council, said if pupils took part in strike action with parental permission, there would be no financial penalty.

He said: "We are not going to punish children for this activity but what we are saying is that it's definitely an unauthorised absence."

Following a debate, councillors voted to limit the authorised strike action to one day.

Education convener Councillor Ian Perry said: "There's no doubt if I was at school I would be doing exactly what Sandy is doing. I think everybody recognises that movement is increasing and is having a big affect.

"Having said that, we have to remind people the duty of this education committee to provide the best education for the young people of this city to prepare them for life.

"We would then be saying that attendance at school is not important and we don't value it.

"I think in order to show solidarity with the climate movement, we should allow one day."

By local democracy reporter David Bol