Shine news

This week, I’ve some exciting news: we’re back with a new series of ‘Ask the Expert’ – conversations with outstanding professionals working in media. Here at Shine, we’ve crafted a series of five questions carefully designed to offer perspectives and advice to students. We’re asking each of our guests these same questions in each of our interviews which will be coming over the next few weeks.

With exams approaching for many students, the Spring Term is all about priorities and achievement. We know that extracurricular activities, sports and evening clubs get squeezed in the face of important learning. All the same, it’s widely accepted that accomplishing creative projects is a way for students to find balance away from their academic studies.

We’d like to encourage those initiatives – like a podcast club, or group creating topic-based journalism. Our Shine Awards for outstanding writing are given for students with an ambition to tell stories about their lived experiences or issues affecting the world – as they see it.

We often hear it’s a challenge to reboot a classroom in January, and perhaps that’s especially true with this very cold start to 2025.

Our deadline for this year’s Shine School Media Awards is in early May, so today I am suggesting that within this short term there’s an opportunity for creativity and learning with a one-off media project.

At the Shine School Media Awards we love it when a school starts a new magazine, newspaper or podcast from scratch, or revives one with a new editorial team.

However we’ve also got a lot of love for schools that already produce a Shine-eligible project.

And… you may not even realise you’re doing this. We tell you how…

Last week I had a great time catching up with three past winners of the Shine School Media Awards. Each won in the last few years and I was really struck by the way they carry a pure enthusiasm for publishing.

That call to write, investigate and share is one that runs strong in all our entrants. I can’t help but wonder how many students you encounter in the classroom where it’s abundantly clear their talents mark them out as potentially incredible journalists or authors.

At this summer’s Shine Awards, one announcement stood out as being the cliffhanger of the day. It was our latest addition to the lineup, rewarding a student who had gone the extra mile to tell a truly remarkable story.

The new prize is called Scoop of the Year and was supported by the London Press Club – who have just announced they are going to sponsor the prize for a second year in 2025.