Media Studies Department

Media Studies at Stanwell School has been offered as an option at GCSE since 1985 and at A Level since 1996.  Current numbers in the academic year 2009-2010 reflect the growth of the subject.  Year 10 has 4 classes of approximately 25 totalling 99 students, while Year 11 has 3 classes of approximately 31 totalling 90 students.  Year 12 has 63 students and Year 13 has 66.  The department achieves very successfully at Key Stages 4 and 5 and benefits from the best facilities available.

The media has a profound and all-embracing influence over our lives.  Whether we use the media for pleasure, information, or to widen our interests, it is difficult to escape the media messages which permeate our lives.  One of the most exciting elements for students is that they have already engaged with the subject matter and have accrued implicit knowledge about it.  Media Studies is a subject whose parameters extend beyond the classroom and into the lives of the students who study it.

The aims and objectives of the department embody long-term, short-term, general and specific goals.  Indeed, this long and short-term approach to goal setting could be summed up in a departmental mission statement:

"To equip students with the skills required to pass their examinations, but also to look beyond school life, enabling them to make their implicit knowledge explicit, and thereby acquiring skills for life"

Students patently enjoy their Media Studies work, and take great pride in creating products themselves.  It is a subject which offers the less able the chance to make maximum use of their own media experience and special interests.  Yet at the same time it enables the able students to make full use of their abilities through comparative analysis underpinned by appropriate concepts, using complex terminology and creating production work to a supremely high standard.

The Media Studies Department is made up of the following staff members:

Mrs L Crowter                                     Head of Department    S1

Mrs S Hall                                           Teacher of Media & Drama   F33

Mr I O' Rourke                                     Teacher of Media & English   F31 

Mrs R Connor                                     Head of Year 10 & teacher of  Media, Drama & Music  S1

Mrs A Baldwin                                     Teacher of P.E & Media         S1

Miss A James                                     Teacher of English & Media   F33

Mrs S Lewis                                         Learning Support Assistant     S1

Mr A Hinds-Payne                               Technician                               S1