Catalyst 2011
Report from Mrs Connor, LRC Manager, Chryston High School
Our Lady’s High School in Motherwell hosted the 8th North Lanarkshire Catalyst Awards, presented to the best teenage book of the year. Hundreds of 3rd and 4th year pupils and four excited but nervous authors were present to see Alex Scarrow awarded Catalyst winner of 2011for his book ‘Time Riders’.
A lovely award to win – the RIGHT kind of award to win, because it’s the students that vote. I had a fantastic and memorable day.
Alex Scarrow
Young people from all 24 secondary schools and public libraries in North Lanarkshire were invited to take part in voting for the overall winner from an exciting shortlist of four great books.
- Grass by Cathy Macphail
- Time Riders by Alex Scarrow
- Where I Belong by Gillian Cross
- When I was Joe by Keren David
The response to the voting this year was overwhelming, helping to keep the Catalyst Awards driven by the people that matter – the readers. Young people were involved in every aspect of the Catalyst Awards, from helping to choose the shortlist, posting reviews on the Catalyst blog and voting for the winner.
This year in conjunction with the Catalyst blog a competition was held to see which school could write the most reviews and which pupil could write the best review.
The winners were:
- Damon A from Caldervale High School, Airdrie – for the best individual review on the blog.
- Our Lady’s High School, Motherwell – for the school that wrote the most reviews on the blog.
And their prize is an author visit of their choice for both schools.
The Catalyst Awards ceremony was hosted by pupils from schools across North Lanarkshire. Each author was introduced by different pupils and the pupils asked lots of interesting questions to the authors during the Q&A section of the ceremony.
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A special mention has to go to the pupils from Our Lady’s High School who were involved in lots of different aspects of the ceremony. The Duke of Edinburgh pupils produced the programmes and helped set up the event and the pupils from Intermediate II Hospitality provided lunch for the authors and special guests. The Photography Club assisted with taking pictures and the Writers Club were on hand to entertain the authors during the day.
The Catalyst committee would like to express a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in making this year’s awards such a success. A special thank you goes to everyone at Our Lady’s High School Motherwell for hosting the awards.
