FLYING pigs and chewing gum for the ears proved the winning formula for a team from The Commonweal School in the Swindon Youth Slam.

Skinny Jeans saw off competition from 18 teams from nine schools in a fast-paced bout of performances at the sold-out show.

The winners came up with clever and energetically-performed poetic takes on everyday life to win over the judges and crowd.

The girls based their opening routine around the saying “pigs might fly”, complete with animal noises, about the excuses adults make to avoid giving their children money.

Their winning performance was about the pointlessness and awkwardness of small talk with the line: “Chewing gum for the ears? One of our biggest fears.”

Member Saskia Kivern, 12, said: “We came up with the ideas by making a mind map to collect all our thoughts and write them down.

“It was really fun to perform. I was nervous at first but being with my friends settled me down.”

Saskia and fellow members Simone Lyons, Ebony Kamugisha and Annie Piatek won the trophy and a selection of books.

The runners up were Skillz that Killz from St Joseph’s and Ratio, also from Commonweal.

The slam, which is in its eighth year, pitted teams against each other in short performances which were given marks by judges.

The event, at the Arts Centre in Old Town on Saturday, followed the wordshops project managed by Josie Williams, community arts development officer at Commonweal School. Compere Marcus Moore said: “It was absolutely amazing. The standard goes up and up every year, both in what the teams do on stage and the effort they put in at the workshops, which were remarkably smooth.

“One of the balancing acts about this is performing without showing off. It’s not the X Factor and it’s more subtle than Britain’s Got Talent.

“In my opinion you need to be able to write well and combine it with the stage performance.

“All the groups got the hang of how to work together with the writing role being the quieter part of the performance.”