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
10th March 2026
Tristan Clark-Lam on finding stories on your doorstep
This week on ‘Ask the Winner,’ I’m talking to Tristan Clark-Lam, who attended two Shine Awards ceremonies and won at both – first for Scoop of the Year and Non-Fiction Writer of the Year, then returning the following year for more success as runner up in the Terry Mansfield CBE Award for Tomorrow’s Talent.
His story began with The Martlet, his school newspaper and a club that met weekly over tea and biscuits to discuss “what makes a good school paper and what do we want our school paper to achieve?”
“It was across school years,” Tristan explains. “A really nice time to spend every week with people from across the school, focusing around this project which everyone was really passionate about. The fact that I had mentors from years above and editors who passed on the reins throughout the school years really created a sense of community.”
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
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