Four students from Brooke Weston Academy had the incredible opportunity to attend the prestigious Carnegie Awards Ceremony at the Cambridge Theatre in London, the iconic home of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical. This exciting event marked the culmination of the 2025 Carnegie book shadowing scheme, where our students, along with students across the UK, read and reviewed the shortlisted books in the lead-up to the awards.

Representing our school were Year 9 students Kristina Olaru, Felicity Fitzjohn, and Chloe Billam and Year 7 student Adriana Rusu, who designed the winning Carnegie Medal poster displayed at the event. They were joined by over 600 young readers from across the country to witness the announcement of this year’s winners.

The ceremony began with a warm welcome from the character of Mrs Phelps, Matilda’s beloved librarian, and was hosted by Joseph Coelho, the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Writing winner, and former Waterstones Children’s Laureate. During the proceedings, the organisers also shared a letter from the Queen, expressing her gratitude to everyone involved in this year’s Carnegie Medal.

The Carnegie Medal for Writing was awarded to Margaret McDonald for her powerful debut novel Glasgow Boys, which explores themes of mental health, trauma, and identity through the lens of two boys in foster care. The Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Writing, voted for by students, went to Nathanael Lessore for King of Nothing, a compelling story about transformation and friendship.

Olivia Lomenech Gill won the Carnegie Medal for Illustration for Clever Crow, while Theo Parish received the Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Illustration for Homebody.

Adriana said, ‘It was my first visit to London, and it was a great experience to go to the theatre to watch the winners being revealed. It has really inspired me to read even more books! I was so excited when I found out my poster had been chosen as the winner of the competition and that everyone would see it displayed on the screens at the ceremony. I would say to anyone thinking about taking part in shadowing next year to do it, as it is a great experience, and you learn about so many different books, and they may even get a chance to go to London.’

Kristina said, ‘I’ve been taking part in shadowing the Carnegies since joining BWA in Year 7. Usually, we watch the live-streaming of the awards ceremony in the Lecture Theatre at school, so when I found out we were going to the theatre in London to see the authors in person, I was so excited! The day was even better than I could have imagined! It was great to watch the authors receiving their awards and being there for the Q&A session beforehand with the authors, which wasn’t broadcast on online streaming.’

Chloe said, ‘The event has inspired me to read even more after hearing the authors talk about their books and how important reading is. The books that stood out to me most from this year’s shortlist were Little Bang and The Things We Leave Behind as they are both extremely relevant to current political matters.'

Felicity said, ‘My favourite part of the awards was hearing the winners being announced and seeing all the authors on stage and listening to them talking about their books, a part of the event we don’t usually see when we are watching from school.’

Librarian, Wendy Mann, said, ‘It was fantastic that the students had the opportunity to watch the winners being announced at the Cambridge Theatre. Seeing all the authors on the stage made for a wonderful atmosphere and being in the beautiful surroundings of the Cambridge Theatre and the home of Matilda the musical as the official results were being announced live was so exciting for us all. Thank you to Miss Liquorish who made sure that our shadowers back at BWA also got to see the live-streaming of the ceremony in the Lecture Theatre. This year's shortlist has been outstanding, and they are all worthy reads.’

Find out more about the books here.

See a selection of photos from the event here.