A Thomas Clarkson Academy student has seen off thousands of hopefuls to become a finalist in a national poetry competition.

Year 11 student Molly Mae Taylor’s poem Scared old Man is in the running to win the Young Writers 2015 Poetry Competition for 11-18 year olds.

Her entry was selected out of more than 9,000 entries from 412 schools across the country.

Molly Mae, who writes poetry in her free time and has plans to be an English teacher, said: “It feels surreal to have been selected out of all the entrants.

“I have had my work published before and also won some local and regional competitions, but this is a major achievement for me.”

Molly Mae’s poem is about homelessness and is told from the point of view of an old man living rough on the streets.

She said: “The brief for the competition was to write about a social problem that you wanted to change. I went to London and saw lots of people living on the streets.

“It makes you appreciate what you have but it also made me really upset about seeing people in that situation.

“I wrote the poem over the course of a couple of days, rewriting it a couple of times until I was happy with it.”

English teacher Lisa Lockyer said: “Molly Mae has always excelled in English, specifically creative writing, and her empathy for others is what has helped her to achieve such an amazing piece of work.”

The winner will receive an iPad and the other 11 finalists will each be given a Kindle.

People can visit the Young Writers website at www.youngwriters.co.uk to vote for Molly Mae’s entry.