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

Register for the Shine Awards 2026 here
Help inspire
tomorrow’s talent
Sponsor Shine

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

2026 entry form available
Monday 12th January 2026

Closing date for entries
Friday 1st May 2026

Shortlisted schools announced
Monday 18th May 2026

The Shine School Media Awards 2026
Monday 29th June 2026

Latest news

Everyone’s talking about student podcasts 🎤

Everyone’s talking about podcasts. At the Shine School Media Awards this year, they were our fastest growing category. There’s no question: students who master them are building a serious advantage.

Podcasting teaches invaluable skills: research, storytelling, interviewing, editing and as the projects grow, how to build audience engagement. They are unique in today’s media for their immediacy and accessibility. Best of all, they are often cost-neutral. Students can create professional-quality podcasts using just their (or a parent’s) phone and apps like Anchor or GarageBand. At our 2025 awards, most schools shared their student podcasts on Spotify.

Read more

Our entrants speak...

“Creating a student publication is a wonderful way to involve pupils across a school and enable them to express themselves and be part of a community. It is then even more rewarding to be involved with the Shine Awards which celebrates their success and offers inspirational advice from industry professionals.”

Craig Cole, Head of Graphics, Photography & Printing Reed’s School, Surrey

More feedback from schools