WELSH Medium primary school Ysgol Gwaun y Nant, in Gibbonsdown, recently held their annual school Eisteddfod as part of their St David’s Day celebrations.

All pupils from school houses Cadog, Dyfan and Gildas were given opportunities to compete in a variety of competitions including singing, reciting, instrumentals, art and craft, handwriting and also IT.

This year a new competition was added which saw older pupils lip syncing to their favourite Welsh bands.

This was one of the highlights of the day.

The pinnacle was the chairing of the Bard ceremony.

The competition involves Year 6 pupils writing a poem which is adjudicated by head teacher, Rhydian Lloyd.

This year’s task was to write a poem about the Legend of Dinas Emrys

According to legend, King Vortigern wanted to build a castle on top of Dinas Emrys, but every night his castle walls would fall down.

Merlin (the wizard) claimed there were two dragons fighting beneath the hill that caused the walls to fall.

Therefore Vortigern and his men dug into the mountain and released two dragons.

The red and white dragon fought, eventually the white dragon fled and the red dragon returned to his lair.

Vortigern’s castle was built and named Dinas Emrys in honour of Myrddin Emrys (Merlin), and the red dragon has been celebrated ever since.

This year’s winner was Finley Shaw who received high praise for his poem.

Wild celebrations were witnessed when Dyfan were announced as the winning school house.