Media

By the end of the Year 11 students at Pendle Vale College will: 

• Have developed transferable skills that can help them in other subjects-especially English. 
• Develop their understanding of how Media has developed over time going as far back as the 1950s . 
• Be able to deeply analyse a host of Media products and explore them with a critical eye.

We fully believe that Science contributes to the development of all students at Pendle Vale College through our unrelenting focus on: 

• Currency: .  
• Core Skills: 
• Character: 

We seek to instill a true love of learning in all our students by: 

• Tailoring the content to Pendle Vale students and, where appropriate, choosing options from the specification that should appeal to them.  
• Ensuring that we explore diversity in all of its forms in the Media products that we analyse. 
• Promoting creativity to apply their learning to produce their own Media products.  
• Using a range of audio-visual resources and computers.  

In order to achieve a true understanding of Media Studies topics have been intelligently sequenced based on the following rationale: 

• They learn Media theories first as this allows them to apply it to all of the Media products that we study. 
• Apply Media theories to texts that get gradually more difficult and introduce new theories which are more relevant to the new texts.  
• Create a variety of Media products after several units to show an applied understanding.  

We fully believe that Media Studies contributes to the development of students at Pendle Vale through their development in five key areas: 

• Social development is encouraged through lots of structured discussions around the Media products that we explore including group work, paired work, no hands questioning and class discussions. 
• Moral development of students is promoted when students are taught to respect one everyone’s opinions even when this doesn’t match their own. They are taught to challenge respectfully and politely and use respectful rebuttals when engaging in this process. Everyone’s has a voice.  
• Spiritual development is highlighted when analysing Media texts and trying to find meanings with some texts having clear links to Christian and Islamic values and codes.  
• The curriculum contributes to the cultural development of students by showing them a wide variety of cultures including looking at the development of British culture:  showing the lack of ethnic minorities in texts in the 20th Century compared to the 21st Century and how this shows that Britain has become a truly multi-cultural and multi-faith country. Helping them to decode how a variety of cultures are presented and being able to spot and challenge stereotypes.  
• Personal development is taught by equipping students with the skills they need to be confident in the Media classroom, to feel they can express opinions in a safe environment and that their opinions are respected.  Students are encouraged to engage in discussions and think about things from multiple viewpoints by applying Media theories.

The Media Studies curriculum ensures that any potential equality issues are mitigated by: 

• Ensuring work is adequaltely differentiated to allow all leaners to access it at all levels.  
• Showcasing Media products that show different ethnicities, cultures, genders and sexualities and encouraging mature responses to these texts.  
• Sharing resources with students allowing them to access and re-access these at their own pace.

Our belief is that homework should be a deliberate practice of what has been modelled and taught in lessons, as well as interleaved revision to ensure students are embedding previously learn knowledge but also developing high level skills alongside powerful knowledge. All Science homework is meaningful and contributes towards students’ progress. KS3 tasks focuses on literacy and key terminology and KS4 focuses on long term memory; repetition and retrieval.

Opportunities are built in to make links to the world of work to enhance the careers, advice and guidance that students are exposed to including: 

• Making regular references to careers that link to Media including: camera-operator, actor, director, journalist, editor, web-design, radio producer and teacher.  
• Informing students of courses locally at Nelson and Colne College and Burnley College that relate to Media Studies.  

Whilst ensuring students are well prepared for their GCSE examinations, we teach beyond the exam specification by: 

• Getting professionals from the Media world to come in and give talks/give virtual talks.  
• Organising trips to Bradford Media Museum and BBC Radio Lancashire.  
• Creating their own Media products regularly to apply their understanding. 
• Exploring other opportuinities when they are publicized.  
• Trip to a local college to explore their facilities and do a sample lesson.

The Media Studies curriculum at Pendle Vale has been influenced by: 

• Having taught Media in several different contexts and at A-Level.  
• The Eduqas specification. 
• Media theory such as Barthes, Mulvey and Propp.  
• Online communities of Media Studies teachers.  
• Online training from Eduqas.