Abigail Maskill, from Sowerby, has been awarded one of the top prizes for The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award.

Her entry was picked from over 12,000 from the UK and around the world.

The Crossley Heath pupil wrote the poem when it was set as English homework with the theme "I remember".

She said: "The poem does not rhyme. It was a lot of random memories, things that stand out that went on through my life.

"We all handed it in, not expecting to see it again, so I was really shocked and happy when I found I had won. I did not think I had any chance of getting the prize."

The award, in its 11th year, is organised by The Poetry Society to discover young poets aged 11-17 and help them develop their talents to become future professional poets.

Abigail's prize is a week-long residential course at one of the prestigious Arvon Centres, where she will be tutored by this year's judges – poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan and poet Eva Salzman.

Mr McMillan said: "Judging the competition confirmed what I already suspected: the future of poetry is in safe hands with these young people, who tackle writing with a dazzling mixture of confidence and cool."

Part of Abigail's winning poem

I Remember
In a gala field, watching a message board that I couldn't read
the letters flickering past, just red shapes and lines.
I remember thinking that men physically couldn't cry,
and that babies came from mummy's tummy via a zipped opening just above the belly button,
and I remember thinking I could find Neverland in the Netherlands
(first country to the west and straight across that Channel till dawn).
I remember playschool –
and insisting my name was written Agail
(after all, it is my own name – I'll write it how I like. Now give me that crayon back.)
I also remember the first day at "Big" school –
and I had a Minnie Mouse dress.
Bright puce – I remember it twirling as I spun till I was dizzy in the schoolyard.
I remember being fought over and tugged between kids at breaktime, and I remember going for months with no one to play with.
I remember sitting on a doorstep and feeding the "imps" that lived in the undergrowth just outside the library.