IMAGINATIVE images and creative writing by two Kendal pupils have won prizes in a Solway Arts poetry competition.

Lyam Pearson, ten, and Kenneth Smith, 12, who both attend the Kendal pupil referral unit, won awards in the 2000 Cumbria Co-op and Bluebell Bookshop's Schools Poetry Competition, with judges praising both the images and rhymes they created.

Inspired after a visit from local poet Maggie Norton, the two boys set about creating poems of their own.

Lyam wrote about an end-of-term summer hike to High Dam and his enjoyment of camping and friendship, while Kenneth's poem talks of a white rat drinking tea with a blind bat.

Teacher Morag McRoberts was very impressed with their win.

"It's fantastic.

They have done really well and written about things they enjoy," she told the Gazette.

The unit, which helps children who experience emotional and behavioural difficulties in mainstream schools, often uses the outdoors to build friendships and trust.

Poetry was a good way of getting children to express their feelings, added Ms McRoberts.

Kenneth said he enjoyed fishing and cricket as well as poetry while Lyam said he enjoyed the space of being outdoors.

"I remembered being with friends at High Dam," said Lyam, who is now doing so well he is spending more time in mainstream education at Stramongate School.