Creative iMedia

Subject Overview

Creative iMedia will help students to develop an understanding of media products and give them the skills to design, plan and create digital media products that are appropriate for a defined target audience. Unlike purely theoretical subjects, Creative iMedia is about ‘learning by doing’ – transforming students into digital creators. Albert Einstein said, “creativity is intelligence having fun” and Creative iMedia allows students to explore their creative flair while mastering the technical software used by global creative industries. The UK’s creative sector is one of the fastest-growing parts of the economy and Creative iMedia provides the perfect foundation for this.

Curriculum Information

Our curriculum intent for Creative iMedia is to empower students to transition from digital consumers to digital creators, equipping them with the technical fluency and aesthetic sensibilities required for the modern media landscape. Students will understand how media products are created, from the initial storyboard to the final edit. Students will learn the pre-production cycle, including client briefs, storyboarding and visualisation diagrams to ensure they can plan projects with professional precision. Students will master a variety of creative tools, such as Photoshop, to produce high-quality assets, learning how to manipulate images, edit sound, and build interactive products. Our intent is to empower students to become digital creators who can shape our visual world.

Key Stage 3 – Creative iMedia Rotation

Creative iMedia appears throughout the Design and Technology rotations in Key Stage 3. Students will be introduced to basic Photoshop skills in Year 7, learning how to manipulate and create images as part of a project to produce a book cover. In Year 8, students will plan and create an interactive website to meet the needs of a client brief. In Year 9, students learn advanced Photoshop skills applying them to a range of digital media creations.

Key Stage 4 – OCR Creative iMedia

OCR Cambridge National in Creative iMedia is a vocational course which awards a GCSE equivalent qualification. Students have the option of studying this course from Year 10 onwards. Students will learn about the media industry, digital media products, how they are planned, and the media codes used to convey meaning, create impact and engage audiences. Students will develop visual identities for clients using concepts of graphic design, and they will learn how to plan, create and review interactive digital media products, such as websites.

Assessment Information

In Key Stage 3, students are assessed on the digital products they create against a set criterion. They will also complete a quality marked-task where they will be assessed and given written feedback to act upon ahead of their final assessment in the topic.

In Key Stage 4, students will complete a final exam at the end of Year 11, which is worth 40% of their final grade. The other 60% comes from two NEA (non-exam assessment) projects, one of which is completed in Year 10, one in Year 11. For each of these NEAs, students will be given a client brief of requirements, they will be required to plan and make digital media products to meet the needs of that brief. For each of these projects, students will complete a practice assessment before the actual NEA where they can be given feedback to aid improvement.

Examples of Enrichment and Extra-Curricular Opportunities

Enterprise Days which occur throughout Key Stage 3 allow opportunities for school trips or projects within school, many of these give students real-world experience of digital media products and the opportunity to create branding/digital products for different scenarios. There are also cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as Media Studies and Photography.

How to support your child

There are countless YouTube resources that students can use to either learn software skills, by following video tutorials, or see the design process from start to finish from professional graphic designers. This will supplement their knowledge which they can then apply to their NEA coursework projects. There are Creative iMedia textbooks available through the usual outlets which can help students prepare for the iMedia exam. In addition, YouTube channels such as ‘Know it all Ninja’ have videos relevant to the exam component.