The awards were decided by a panel of 16 judges chaired by Daily Mail columnist and online editor Simon Heffer and were presented to the winning students by Heffer and children's author Keren David.

Heffer said that the enthusiasm of those taking part had come through in their work and praised the standard of this year's entries, suggesting that several were worthy of professional status.

The Master of the Stationers' Company, Nigel Stapleton, said the Stationers' passion for words went back more than 600 years, adding that the Shine Awards were an investment in passing on that passion to a new generation of young people.

Caistor Focus published by Caistor Grammar School, took the prize for Best Newspaper, sponsored by Antalis McNaughton, while the Best Magazine category, sponsored by CLA, was won by Blackpool Sixth Form College with their Sixth Sense magazine.

The winner in the  Best Online Publication category, sponsored by the Stationers Foundation, was the entry from The City Academy, Hackney.

The winning teams were presented with cheques for £1,000 and the chance to attend a workshop at the Times Education Supplement’s editorial office.

In addition to the three main awards, the winners in 10 other categories won copies of the cross-media publishing suite QuarkXPress 9 for their schools.

Shine 2012 Category winners
Best Cover: Sixth Sense – Blackpool Sixth Form College
Best Design and Layout: Wymondham College 2011 60th Anniversary – Wymondham College
Best Original Artwork and Photography: Scripted – Tonbridge Grammar School
Best Feature Article: The Quad – Dean Close School
Best Overall Editorial Content: The Citizen – City of London School
Best Commercial Strategy: The NetworX – Ovingham Middle School
Best Community Initiative: Farra News – Farringdon Community Sports College
Best Environmental Strategy: The Bridge – John Summers High School
Most Inspirational Teacher (nominated by pupils): Peter Davies – The Latymer School
Outstanding Pupil: Liam Pape – Darlington School of Mathematics and Science

Peter Schaebbicke, European channel and education programmes director at Quark, said: "We congratulate all winners, and were pleased to present Wymondham College their award for the Best Design and Layout. All of this year’s submissions showed a lot of creativity and remarkable skills in the production of print and online publications.

"Thanks to the Shine School Media Awards pupils now have a career advantage to succeed in today’s competitive job market, where being able to write and design for multiple media is essential. We are looking forward to seeing students and schools using App Studio in QuarkXPress to produce exciting iPad apps for next year’s edition."

In addition, the judges made a special award to the team from The Right Choice Project, a scheme for helping teenage pupils who have been excluded from school or who have arrived from overseas and have not found places in mainstream schools, for their Spring Magazine 2012.

One of the judges, Terry Mansfield of the Hearst Corporation, said: "When you give these young people a chance it is amazing what they can achieve."