Logo Logo Logo Logo Logo
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About HWS
      • Headteacher’s Welcome
      • Our Vision
      • Our Community
      • British Values
      • International Links
      • Our Curriculum
      • The School Day
      • Exam Results
      • Ofsted
      • Financial Information
      • Pupil Premium
      • Covid 19 Catch-Up Premium
    • School Policy
      • Absences
      • Uniform Policy
      • Policies
      • Bullying and Concerns
      • Safeguarding
      • GDPR and Data Protection
    • Governors
      • Our Governing Body
      • How to become a Governor
    • Join Us
      • Prospectus
      • Admissions
      • How to Find Us
      • Starting at HWS
      • Working at HWS
      • Vacancies
  • News
    • News Archive
    • Calendar
    • Insight Magazine
    • Social Wall
    • Gallery Archive
  • Learning
    • Teaching & Learning
      • Learning Support (SEND)
      • SEND Information Report
      • Maya Angelou Centre
      • Mentoring
      • Learning Resource Centre
      • Dedicated Reading Time
      • Year 7 Catchup
    • Enrichment
      • Extra Curricular
      • The Wider Curriculum
      • Pupil Premium
      • Model UN
    • Subjects
      • Art & Photography
      • Business & Economics
      • Computing & ICT
      • Design Technology
      • Drama
      • English
      • Geography
      • History
      • Mathematics
    • Subjects
      • Media Studies
      • Modern Foreign Languages
      • Music
      • PHSEE/Life Skills
      • Physical Education
      • Religion, Ethics & Philosophy
      • Science
      • Social Sciences
  • Students
    • Student Resources
      • Tootoot
      • Student Email
      • Satchel One
      • SMHW Status
      • SAM Learning
      • Tootoot
      • Healthy Choices
      • Accelerated Reader
      • Safety Online
      • On-Line Learning
    • Exam Resources
      • Exams
      • Exam Specifications
      • Exam Preparation
      • Revision Resources
    • Life at HWS
      • Careers Information
      • School Council
      • Jack Petchey Awards
      • HWS Alumni
  • Parents
    • Parent & School
      • Term Dates
      • Key Dates
      • Accelerated Reader Info
      • School Dinners Menu
      • Buying School Uniform
      • Who to Contact
    • Year Groups
      • Year 7
      • Year 8
      • Year 9
      • Year 10
      • Year 11
    • Parent Links
      • SCOPAY
      • Satchel One
      • AR Home Connect
      • Handbooks
      • Letters Home
      • Admin Forms (Free school meals, Cashless Catering, One-off Clothing Grant etc.)
    • PSA
      • About PSA
      • Fundraising
      • Parent Carer Fund
  • Sixth Form
    • Apply for a place at our Sixth Form
    • Transition to Sixth Form
    • Introduction
    • Sixth Form Subjects
    • Student Life
    • Beyond Post-16
    • Sixth Form Prospectus
  • Home
  • About Us

    • About HWS

      • Headteacher’s Welcome
      • Our Vision
      • Our Community
      • British Values
      • International Links
      • Our Curriculum
      • The School Day
      • Exam Results
      • Ofsted
      • Financial Information
      • Pupil Premium
      • Covid 19 Catch-Up Premium
    • School Policy

      • Absences
      • Uniform Policy
      • Policies
      • Bullying and Concerns
      • Safeguarding
      • GDPR and Data Protection
    • Governors

      • Our Governing Body
      • How to become a Governor
    • Join Us

      • Prospectus
      • Admissions
      • How to Find Us
      • Starting at HWS
      • Working at HWS
      • Vacancies
  • News

    • News Archive
    • Calendar
    • Insight Magazine
    • Social Wall
    • Gallery Archive
  • Learning

    • Teaching & Learning

      • Learning Support (SEND)
      • SEND Information Report
      • Maya Angelou Centre
      • Mentoring
      • Learning Resource Centre
      • Dedicated Reading Time
      • Year 7 Catchup
    • Enrichment

      • Extra Curricular
      • The Wider Curriculum
      • Pupil Premium
      • Model UN
    • Subjects

      • Art & Photography
      • Business & Economics
      • Computing & ICT
      • Design Technology
      • Drama
      • English
      • Geography
      • History
      • Mathematics
    • Subjects

      • Media Studies
      • Modern Foreign Languages
      • Music
      • PHSEE/Life Skills
      • Physical Education
      • Religion, Ethics & Philosophy
      • Science
      • Social Sciences
  • Students

    • Student Resources

      • Tootoot
      • Student Email
      • Satchel One
      • SMHW Status
      • SAM Learning
      • Tootoot
      • Healthy Choices
      • Accelerated Reader
      • Safety Online
      • On-Line Learning
    • Exam Resources

      • Exams
      • Exam Specifications
      • Exam Preparation
      • Revision Resources
    • Life at HWS

      • Careers Information
      • School Council
      • Jack Petchey Awards
      • HWS Alumni
  • Parents

    • Parent & School

      • Term Dates
      • Key Dates
      • Accelerated Reader Info
      • School Dinners Menu
      • Buying School Uniform
      • Who to Contact
    • Year Groups

      • Year 7
      • Year 8
      • Year 9
      • Year 10
      • Year 11
    • Parent Links

      • SCOPAY
      • Satchel One
      • AR Home Connect
      • Handbooks
      • Letters Home
      • Admin Forms (Free school meals, Cashless Catering, One-off Clothing Grant etc.)
    • PSA

      • About PSA
      • Fundraising
      • Parent Carer Fund
  • Sixth Form
    • Apply for a place at our Sixth Form
    • Transition to Sixth Form
    • Introduction
    • Sixth Form Subjects
    • Student Life
    • Beyond Post-16
    • Sixth Form Prospectus

Media Studies

Through Media Studies students are able to extend their analytic skills and understanding of modern media production and media text whilst our well-equipped Mac studios allow them also to develop their technical skills in media production.

The Media Studies Department at Highgate Wood School aims to engage, challenge and encourage all students to develop a passion for understanding how and why the media exists and how it can ultimately influence audience’s around the world today.  Our curriculum celebrates the diversity and is inclusive of the school community and helps students to make sense of the world and representations within it.  We have opportunities to study media content from global artists to local heroes, engaging in the various ways the media can be consumed.

By studying a range of media products and industries from the three platforms of media; including magazines, film, TV, social media, video games, radio, music videos and newspapers, we are able to analyse how representations are constructed.  In addition to this we debate why they are constructed in such a way? How different audiences would interpret texts and how regulation and ownership will inevitably have influence over media production.  We endeavor to challenge and debate perceptions and ideologies created by the media, analytically linking context and intentions around the creations of media products, whilst evaluating how different audiences, with differing experiences and backgrounds, will decode messages communicated.  We aim to highlight that there is no one way of interpreting a media text and that opinions, producer views and audience interpretations will always be different.

Our hope for all our students is that studying a diverse and inclusive Media Studies curriculum provides them with the cultural literacy needed to succeed in life and actively participate in the world with empathy and integrity. By answering analytical questions and learning how to question media representation and interpretations, students learn to think critically and become independent, evaluative thinkers. By challenging students, stimulating their intellectual curiosity and encouraging their creativity, we give students transferable skills, preparing them to become lifelong learners and active global citizens; inspiring them to be the best that they can be.

  • Key Stage 3
  • Key Stage 4
  • Key Stage 5

Media Studies is first taught within English lessons in Years 7, 8 and 9, where students are encouraged to develop their understanding not just of written literary texts but of media texts of all sorts – newspapers, magazines, comics, films, advertisement, cartoons, radio and television shows as well as the world wide web and other forms of digital media.

You will develop your knowledge and understanding of print, broadcast and e-media products as well as the areas of marketing, advertising and promotion including the institutions that create, produce and monitor media texts. The course will build on some of the media work you will have already done in English at Key Stage 3. You will produce drafts, plans and fully realised pieces in print, moving image and e‐media, analysing and evaluating your
work. Media Studies students use Apple Mac computers to create and edit products using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, IMovie and Publisher. All students can borrow film and still image cameras to complete their NEA (Non-Exam Assessment).

Three units of compulsory assessment:

Paper 1— Written exam 1 hour 30 minutes worth 84 marks and 35% of the GCSE

Questions will focus on areas of theoretical framework: industries, audience and representation.

Paper 2—Written exam 1 hour 30 minutes worth 84 marks and 35% of the GCSE

Questions will focus on Media Language and contexts of media.

NEA (Non-Exam Assessment) — internally assessed worth 72 marks and 30% the GCSE

Students will be given a choice of topics related to an over-arching theme that changes annually. They will be able to apply knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework and show off practical skills relating to the media format that they choose to create.

Three units of compulsory assessment:

Paper 1 Written Exam (2hrs) – 35% (externally assessed)

Section A will focus on Media Language and Media Representations. Questions in this section will test the following forms:

  • advertising and marketing
  • music video

Section B will focus on Media Industries and Media Audiences. Questions in this section can test any two of the following forms:

  • radio
  • newspapers
  • film (industries only)

Paper 2 Written Exam (2hrs) – 35% (externally assessed)

Questions will focus on the in-depth media forms of television, magazines and online, social and participatory media/video games.

Non-exam assessment: Creating a cross-media production – 35% (internally assessed)

Students choose one brief of six set by AQA and produce a cross-media production made for an intended audience as well as a statement of intent. Students are assessed by their understanding and knowledge of the theoretical framework and their ability to create media content.

Key Stage 3

Media Studies is first taught within English lessons in Years 7, 8 and 9, where students are encouraged to develop their understanding not just of written literary texts but of media texts of all sorts – newspapers, magazines, comics, films, advertisement, cartoons, radio and television shows as well as the world wide web and other forms of digital media.

Key Stage 4

You will develop your knowledge and understanding of print, broadcast and e-media products as well as the areas of marketing, advertising and promotion including the institutions that create, produce and monitor media texts. The course will build on some of the media work you will have already done in English at Key Stage 3. You will produce drafts, plans and fully realised pieces in print, moving image and e‐media, analysing and evaluating your
work. Media Studies students use Apple Mac computers to create and edit products using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, IMovie and Publisher. All students can borrow film and still image cameras to complete their NEA (Non-Exam Assessment).

Three units of compulsory assessment:

Paper 1— Written exam 1 hour 30 minutes worth 84 marks and 35% of the GCSE

Questions will focus on areas of theoretical framework: industries, audience and representation.

Paper 2—Written exam 1 hour 30 minutes worth 84 marks and 35% of the GCSE

Questions will focus on Media Language and contexts of media.

NEA (Non-Exam Assessment) — internally assessed worth 72 marks and 30% the GCSE

Students will be given a choice of topics related to an over-arching theme that changes annually. They will be able to apply knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework and show off practical skills relating to the media format that they choose to create.

Key Stage 5

Three units of compulsory assessment:

Paper 1 Written Exam (2hrs) – 35% (externally assessed)

Section A will focus on Media Language and Media Representations. Questions in this section will test the following forms:

  • advertising and marketing
  • music video

Section B will focus on Media Industries and Media Audiences. Questions in this section can test any two of the following forms:

  • radio
  • newspapers
  • film (industries only)

Paper 2 Written Exam (2hrs) – 35% (externally assessed)

Questions will focus on the in-depth media forms of television, magazines and online, social and participatory media/video games.

Non-exam assessment: Creating a cross-media production – 35% (internally assessed)

Students choose one brief of six set by AQA and produce a cross-media production made for an intended audience as well as a statement of intent. Students are assessed by their understanding and knowledge of the theoretical framework and their ability to create media content.

Additional Information

For more information on our curriculum for Media Studies, please contact Ayse Ahmet: aah@hws.haringey.sch.uk

Department Contacts
  • Ayse Ahmet

    Head of Media Studies
  • Rowena Monaghan

    English Teacher
  • Lindsay Pinnick

    English Teacher, Media Teacher
  • Sophie Wildman

    English Teacher, Media Studies Teacher
Related Documents
  • Map for GCSE Media Studies
Get in touch

FIND US
Montenotte Road, Hornsey, London, N8 8RN


CONTACT US

020 8342 7970
Mon-Fri: 8:15am-4:15pm
(term time only)

admin@hws.haringey.sch.uk

 

JOIN US
Working at HWS
Vacancies

Resources

STUDENTS

Student email

Satchel One (SMHW)

SMHW status

Sam Learning

Tootoot

 

STAFF

Staff email

Remote access

Satchel One (SMHW)

 

 

Quick links

PARENTS/CARERS
Calendar
Admissions
Buying School Uniform
Admin forms
Who to contact
Letters Home
SCOPAY