Our Media Studies Module for Transition Year originated out of a desire to provide students with the opportunity to learn about & gain practical experience of the skills & roles which they might encounter particularly in the area of Radio & TV production.
It is a hands on practical module where, for most of the time, students are working on assignments relating to Content Management, scriptwriting, Programme Scheduling, VT editing, Presenting, News Report Production etc. Students are divided into Groups of 4 to work research topics & assignments.
Class Time is teacher centred only at the beginning of a topic when concepts, ideas & procedures are being explained & introduced to students. After that they must take ownership of their work either in class or if it needs to be worked on outside of class time. Every student must complete & submit one assignment per month on a different aspect of radio/TV or film production.
The module is almost entirely I.T. based & all tasks, assignments are worked on & completed in Google Drive where there is a specific TY Media Studies Folder with specific procedures, policies & permissions set up for students to learn about cloud computing & how to create, save, store & share content securely with their teachers & with other students in their group.
The module tries to replicate & simulate as much as is possible, the environment they could expect to encounter in real world media, radio or TV production situation.
Friday 23rd May, 2025 was a momentous day for our Transition Year Media Studies program as our TY students produced & presented our schools 3rd ever LIVE outside broadcast at Fethard Town Park Pavilion. Their morning chat show style program was streamed live to all school socials & Youtube.
The show included a variety of current news, sport & community related topics. All students were involved in all aspects of the production & tackled such roles as Presenters, Producers, Scriptwriters & Editors, Floor Managers, Camera Operators, VT editors, Scheduling, Content Management etc. It was a very rewarding experience & our TY students displayed extraordinary teamwork, maturity, co-operation & work ethic to get this significant challenge over the line.
