The Shine School Media Awards is a free national competition rewarding UK secondary schools who produce an outstanding newspaper, magazine or multimedia project

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Welcome to the Shine School Media Awards!

The Shine School Media Awards is a free national competition that rewards a diversity of talent from secondary schools across the UK who work on the writing, editing, design and fund-raising for a school newspaper, magazine or multimedia project such as a podcast or digital publication.

The annual culmination of each year’s Shine Awards is a gala ceremony held in central London every summer with student workshops and incredible guest speakers.

The significant benefits of starting a Shine project include an enrichment of the school curriculum, an incentive to creativity and the chance for pupils to win national recognition and in the process enrich their CV and applications for university or college.

The Shine Awards is an endeavour of The Stationers’ Foundation, the charitable arm of The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, one of the UK’s ancient livery companies.

Find out more about the Shine School Media Awards

The Shine School Media Awards is an endeavour of The Stationers’ Foundation

Key Shine dates

Registration for 2025
Now open

2025 entry form available
January 2025

Closing date for entries
Early May 2025

The Shine School Media Awards 2025
Monday 30th June 2025

Latest news

Lead, manage, communicate: how students can learn these invaluable skills

What does the school magazine look like in 2025? I think many teachers assume it needs to be expensively printed or involve professional design software. But the truth is that most schools that enter the Shine School Media Awards do so by contriving their own path to publishing.

I asked Sharon Maxwell Magnus, head of outreach in the school of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, about the real opportunities students can gain from a school magazine. Here’s what she had to say…

Read more

Our entrants speak...

“I just wanted to pass on our thanks to you and the entire Shine team for a wonderful day yesterday. It is the second year we have entered the competition. Both days leave an incredibly strong mark on the memory and motivate us going forward. Meeting students and teachers from other schools who create podcasts, digital media, newspapers and magazines is incredibly inspiring. It makes us feel like we are part of something bigger.

“It is a privilege to meet experts and benefit from their advice. It’s a world we don’t normally have access to. The work experiences students have been offered are incredible and will make a real difference in their lives.”

Emma Gallagher, King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls

More feedback from schools