Shine School Media Awards 2025

With the annual Shine School Media Awards taking place on June 30, we look at the school newspaper and what it teaches the students that produce it.

On June 30, the 2025 Shine School Media Awards will be announced at Stationers’ Hall in London. This will be the culmination of an annual competition that rewards secondary schools in the UK that produce an outstanding newspaper, magazine, podcast or multimedia project, and showcases some of the country’s next big media stars.

Far from being lost to budget cuts, lack of student interest or unenthusiastic staff, the school newspaper is currently thriving, with many schools regarding it as an essential part of school life, not only giving its students a host of essential journalism, photography, digital and audio skills, but fostering a real sense of community within the school.

Proud Achievements

The Shine awards have a number of categories, from Best Newspaper Front Page, Writer of the Year and Best Sustainability Initiative, all the way up to Editor of the Year, Scoop of the Year and Best Newspaper of the Year. Free to enter, the competition attracts hundreds of entries, as well as some of the biggest names in media to gives speeches at the awards event.

Last year, the Newspaper of the Year award was given to The Hummersknott Academical, the student-led school newspaper for Hummersknott Academy in Darlington, which also won Best Front Page, as well as being Highly Commended in the Best Scoop category for an exclusive interview with the then-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

“We’re overjoyed that The Hummersknott Academical has received such incredible national recognition,” said Head of School, Nick Merifield at the time. “They beat some fantastic publications from all over the country to win, many from fee-paying private schools. It’s a testament to the phenomenal level of time and effort that the student news team and the staff members supporting them put in, almost entirely outside of school hours. We couldn’t be prouder.”

Essential Life Skills

Whether a school newspaper wins an award or not, the benefits of being involved in producing a regular publication are huge. On the educational side, learning how to write and edit in a clear and concise way is essential for just about any professional job, while understanding the importance of good spelling, grammar and punctuation, and dealing with the pressure of deadlines, are all highly sought-after skills.

“Our school magazine has enabled our editors to develop key leadership skills,” says Ben Dlugokecki, Assistant Headteacher at Osborne School, a special needs school in Winchester. “It has enabled our students to upskill in the areas of design and ICT, as well as discuss serious issues such as understanding the LGBTQ+ community, mental health and climate change.”

For more information about the Shine Awards, go to shine-schoolawards.org