A NEWPORT girl has won the National Urdd Eisteddfod's highest poetry award.

Kayley Sydenham, 18, collected the highest accolade in the National Urdd Eisteddfod in Llangrannog today in the main poetry competition.

She attended Ysgol Gymraeg Casnewydd and has just completed her final year at Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw, Pontypool.

There were 40 entries in the competition where they needed to write a poem in free verse or in ‘cynghanedd’ on a topic of their choice.

Last year Kayley's entry made it into the first class section, but she went even better this year.

She has just completed her A Level assessments at Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw where she studied Welsh Language and Literature, Art and the Welsh Baccalaureate.

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This week she has also learnt of her success in winning both an entrance scholarship and the Gwyn Thomas scholarship worth £5,000, to study Welsh Literature at Bangor University in North Wales in September after sitting an entrance scholarship examination in school a few weeks ago.

Like so many other events, the Urdd Eisteddfod needed to adapt its arrangements to coincide with local government guidelines for Covid.

The ceremony was held at the Llangrannog Youth Centre overlooking the beautiful coastline in Ceredigion Bay.

Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw said today that they are proud and overjoyed at Kayley’s success.

This is the first time that a pupil from the school has won a competition in any of the main ceremonies in the Eisteddfod previously, and is a testament to Kayley’s hard work, and also the success of Welsh language education in the south eastern valleys of Wales.