In an increasingly media-centric world, studying creative media production at Paddington Academy allows students to become fluent media analysts, critical thinkers and skilled technical practitioners. As society becomes ever more inundated with messages, information, imagery and text, we firmly believe that all students should be able to engage with and interpret these messages and reflect critically on their meaning and, ultimately, their impact.
Our media curriculum builds our students' cultural capital through the texts that are studied and discussed across the different units; therefore, we have carefully selected a range of case studies designed to tackle stereotypes and provide an open, welcoming space that encourages students to discuss issues from trans rights and racism, through to the representations of disability.
Our vision for media studies is to seam key media concepts, such as Hall’s representation theory, Mulvey’s male gaze, and semiotics, alongside the more practical elements of media production. The aim of this approach is to stimulate intellectual curiosity through experiential, hands-on, applied learning. Studying creative media production allows students to gain experience of planning, developing and producing their own media projects across a range of text types, from printed to moving image, to gain understanding of a wide range of media products. As such, the students gain real-world, career-relevant skills, learning to produce media using industry standard software, Adobe Creative Suite – InDesign, Premiere Pro and Photoshop.
Year 10
In Year 10, students are introduced to the foundations of media theory. The curriculum has been specifically designed to allow students to begin exploring media products and develop their understanding of how media products create meaning for their audiences. Students are exposed to texts that allow them to develop critical reasoning, analytical skills and media production techniques. Content taught in Year 10 includes mise-en-scene, audience interpretation, media research, genre, narrative, characterisation and representation. In addition, students begin their journey towards becoming skilled media producers, and are introduced to media production techniques including camerawork and editing techniques.
Year 11
Building on the core skills developed in Year 10, Year 11 challenges students to apply skills and techniques in media production processes by creating a moving image media product. Learners begin by researching and generating ideas in response to a creative brief. Content learned in Year 11 accurately reflects a real-life media environment, with students tasked with pre and post production processes and practices. Core concepts include idea generation, planning materials, content refinement, product testing and distribution platforms - all of which set them up for success in Key Stage 5.
Key Stage 5
Media in Year 12 and Year 13 exposes students to enhanced media theory, including representation theory, audience positioning, intertextuality, semiotics, construction and anchorage. Key Stage 5 media also requires students to develop their technical skills and exposes them further to industry standard software, including Adobe’s Creative Suite (InDesign, PremierPro, PhotoShop). Students develop their understanding and application of theory, further developing their of media and technical skills (additional cameras, Illustrator), understanding the industry and developing career-led vocational awareness. There is a strong emphasis on building students’ ability to critically analyse media texts and developing their understanding of how messages are constructed for different audiences and platforms.
The curriculum allows students to develop their understanding of core media concepts across media representations, advertising, news and magazine production and how media campaigns are developed.