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.
Latest news
3rd November 2026
Winning work experience at a national newspaper? That’s a prize worth having.
Work experience at a national newspaper is notoriously hard to find. For the 2026 Shine School Media Awards’ Editor of the Year, it was part of the prize.
This summer Charlton, Editor of ‘Reveal’ magazine at Pate’s Grammar School, spent a day in the Daily Mail newsroom with Senior Associate Editor Liz Hunt. He joined the editorial meetings, researched for the features desk and watched the front page splash change several times as the news moved on.
This week we share Charlton’s story.
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