STUDENTS have proved they are well versed at writing after being selected as winners in a poetry competition.

Becky Fielden and Nathaniel Bentress, who attend Hurworth School Maths and Computing College, are among the five winners of a regional poetry competition.

A former Hurworth School pupil, Catherine Hodgson, who is now at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Darlington, won the overall prize.

Becky, 15, who is in year 11, will see her poem printed in the anthology A Way with Words County Durham. The poem by 14- year-old Nathaniel, who is in year ten, will appear in I Have a Dream North East.

Catherine’s poem will be published in A Way with Words.

The poems were selected from 37,000 entries from young people in the region. The winners also received vouchers.

Rita Rees, a teacher at Hurworth School, said: “The pupils enjoy writing poetry.

Many of the poems were really very good and the pupils are really pleased they have done so well.”