A NINE-YEAR-OLD’S winning Cornwall School Games poem impressed the chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust so much she was asked to read it at the National School Games Summit in Telford.

Indie Houghton, who lives in Bude and attends Stratton Primary School, entered the Cornwall School Games poetry competition, for which she had to write a poem about sport including at least one of the School Games core values. The competition was open to primary school aged children throughout Cornwall so competition was high.

Indie was announced the winner and was asked to attend the Cornwall Games at Budehaven School and read her poem in front of VIP guests, including the chief executive at the Youth Sport Trust, Ali Oliver, who had come down from Telford for the day.

Indie’s parents Julian and Tania said Ali approached them after and said they were so blown away by her poem, would they attend the School Games National Summit on Tuesday, November 14, at The International Centre in Telford.

It was attended by more than 450 School Games organisers, County Sport Partnerships and a range of national governing bodies from across the country.

There, Indie read her poem out beautifully to an audience of approximately 700 people.

Her parents said: “She was treated like royalty for the day! It was an absolutely amazing experience for her —and her twin brother and ourselves too!”

Ali , said: “Indie won the Cornwall School Games cultural competition with her poem and it was through her performance at their county event earlier this year that I saw her reading.

“I was so impressed by Indie’s poem that I asked her to perform at our School Games Summit.

“I was so moved by the words Indie had written about taking part in the competition and the values and attributes we can develop through sport, I knew she would inspire our audience of 700 delegates.

“It was great to have a poet in the making championing a voice for young people in front of the whole School Games network.”