AN OXFORD schoolgirl has been crowned winner of Oxfordshire's first poetry youth "slam".

Thirteen-year-old Cherwell School pupil Elinor Garnett's poem about plastic surgery was chosen out of dozens of others to win the "1,000 bpm youth slam", with Cheney School pupil Amar Elagab second and Charlotte Smith, from Lord Williams School, Thame, third.

Cherwell School English teacher James Eve said of his student: "She's just tremendously talented. We had 95 kids from Cherwell involved in an initial workshop and she was one of three kids who came through to put a team together.

"She did brilliantly just to get to the finals, but to win against kids who were mostly a year or two older was fantastic.

"I think it's tremendously important just teaching them to be creative and to see poetry not just as something that's been published in books but also something they can create themselves and even perform."

International slam champion Steve Larkin hosted the event, the culmination of a term's work across the county aimed at engaging young people with the spoken word.

He said: "The final scores were all very close and it was very difficult for the judges to choose the winners.

"The winning performance from Elinor Garnett was brilliantly written and well thought out, showing surprising maturity and insight.

"Also deserving of attention was runner-up Amar Elagab whose use of intelligent couplets successfully bridged the gap between hip hop and more traditional poetry."

A poetry slam is a competition where poets perform their own work, which is then judged by the audience.

A total of 10 schools or youth organisations took part in the slam, which was organised by the Henley Festival Trust as part of the 1,000 years of Oxfordshire celebrations.

Thanks to funding from Arts Council England and The Community Fund, nearly 1,000 13- to 16-year-olds across the county took part in a workshop programme led by Oxford's Hammer and Tongue poets.

Mandy Beard, from the Henley Festival Trust, said: "The whole project has been about making the spoken word exciting for young people.

"The workshops have introduced them to competitive poetry, helping them with speaking and listening, reading, writing and performing."

As well as the individual competition, there was also a group competition, with the winning school group from Cheney School, followed by Cherwell School and in third place Langtree School, Woodcote.

Some of the entries will now be put forward to the National Teenage Slam Championship next year.