A budding young author from Largs Primary School has been highly commended for his entry in the regional finals of a major competition.

Harris Watson's short story was chosen as the runner-up for central and southern Scotland in the junior category of the Rotary Club's young writer contest.

Alex Blair, president of the Rotary Club of Hunterston said: "The Rotary Young Writer competition is organised and promoted by Rotary Great Britain and Ireland and comprised of three stages, each designed to support and encourage the development of writing skills.

"Its aims are to encourage young people to be creative, use their writing skills, and write with imagination and creativity.

"This was a tremendous achievement by Harris in what is always a very challenging event.

"We intend to make all primary schools in Largs, Fairlie, West Kilbride, Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston aware of other Rotary competitions, namely Young Artist, Young Photographer and Young Environmentalist.”

The annual Rotary Club competition aims to encourage young people to be creative, use their writing skills, and write with imagination and creativity,

The competition's judges told Harris: "We liked the structure, it was successful and you really wanted to read on and see what was going to happen.

"There was good use of direct speech and generally it was just well written. His voice sounded natural and authentic.

Largs and Millport Weekly News:

Alex, along with the club's president-elect Norman Whyte and club member David Ennis, attended a recent Largs Primary School assembly where Harris read his story in front of over 400 pupils before being presented with his prize.

Accepting his certificate and a book token Harris said: “I was surprised but over the moon to have won the runner-up prize.”

Thanking club for their support, Largs Primary teacher Stacey Arneil said: "We are so proud of Harris... he'll be a famous writer one day."