Media Studies

Intent

We believe that Media shapes and reflects our understanding of the world around us and our aim is produce critical consumer of media texts.

The creative industries are a growth area of high-skilled employment both nationally and globally and we encourage students to aspire to careers in this field or to use the transferrable skills they gain in another career path.

We believe that in order to encourage greater diversity in the creative industries that we need to produce students who have the requisite skills to pursue careers in the media.

Students develop a variety of ‘soft skills’, such as teamwork, communication skills, organisation and problem solving. In addition, Media Studies encourages the development of analytical skills which can be applied to the set texts and unfamiliar products. We feel that these skills are so strong in our students that they happily confess that they lose the ability to engage passively with a media text.

Students develop a range of practical media skills using a limited range of technical resources which forces students to ‘think around’ a problem and identify a solution based on the resources available to them.

Implementation

We study the EDUQAS Media Studies A Level which develops student knowledge of a full range of media texts. The emphasis on cultural context and cultural situation is created through the use of contrasting set texts.

We use quality-first teaching which ensures students understand the underlying media framework and the theoretical context for each text type.

Students are encouraged to work collaboratively on a range of analytical and practical tasks which develops their confidence, communication, and teamwork skills.

Rapid, creative recreation tasks are built into every scheme of work, where students are asked to demonstrate their understanding of media language by creating or simulating specific parts a a media text.

Through teacher modelling, we encourage students to demonstrate manners, respect and critical thinking. Tolerance for alternative viewpoints is also developed through the delicate nature of some of the contentious topics studied, for example representation of the developing world in charity advertisements.

Our students think independently and are encouraged to know, apply and evaluate theoretical perspectives or to develop their own theories to explain the key media concepts.

Regular unseen practice is embedded into the schemes of work and students have amply opportunity to plan and write under timed conditions meaning that they are confident in their approach to examinations.

Impact

We know our curriculum is working in the Media department as examination results are consistently above the national average and among the best in the school at A-level.

The quality of teaching and learning in Media has been praised during learning walks by internal observers.

The engagement of students in the department can be observed in lessons and recorded in student voice. Media students at St Bernard’s go on to study the subject further at university.

More importantly, students frequently express their enjoyment of Media, the quality of teaching they have received and their appreciation of the knowledge and study skills they have gained from the department.

For us, the sign of success is when s student tells us that a media text has been ‘ruined’ for them, because they couldn’t watch passively without analysing the media language and representations.