GCSE Digital Media and Film
Digital Media and Film is a high literacy GCSE: learners analyse film, game and news texts including an unseen extract, write comparative and evaluative answers, research and write a Welsh industry case study, script productions and keep a reflective log. Numeracy is light and never calculated in the examination, limited to reading audience and success figures and handling timings for editing, trailers and release schedules. The single biggest thing Key Stage 3 should build is analytical writing about moving image, where pupils name a technique precisely and explain its effect on an audience.
- First taught
- September 2026
- Amount of literacy work
- High
- Amount of numeracy work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the WJEC specification (PDF)
How this GCSE is assessed
- Unit 1: Exploring key concepts and issues: On-screen examination 1 hour 30 minutes, 60 marks, 30%
- Unit 2: Distribution and exhibition strategies of digital media and film industries in Wales: Non-examination assessment, portfolio based, 18 hours, 72 marks, 30%
- Unit 3: Creating digital media and film content: Non-examination assessment, assignment based, no time restriction, 96 marks, 40%
Skills that use Calculation
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Interpreting audience and success data
Learners must evaluate the success of two Welsh products and understand audience reach and virality in online news, which in practice means reading box office, viewing and download figures and comparing them. The specification does not list statistical methods, so demand is interpretation rather than calculation.
Numeracy: Interpreting data, Calculation
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils read a bar chart of weekend box office takings for five family films and write two sentences on which did best and by how much.
- Year 8
- Pupils compare the opening weekend and total takings of two Welsh films and express the opening weekend as a percentage of the total.
- Year 9
- Pupils calculate the percentage increase in viewing figures between two series of a Welsh drama and write a short judgement on whether it proves the series succeeded.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Section 3.2, Unit 2: Overview, page 27
“Consider two digital media and/or film products produced by a company based in Wales and evaluate their success.”
Progression step 3
I can extract and interpret information from an increasing range of diagrams, timetables and graphs (including pie charts).
I can draw conclusions from data and recognise that some conclusions may be misleading or uncertain.
Progression step 4
I can interpret mathematical information; drawing inferences from graphs, diagrams and data, including discussion on limitations of data.
I can calculate a percentage increase or decrease.
Progression step 5
I can interpret graphs that describe real-life situations, including those used in the media, recognising that some graphs may be misleading.
I can interpret mathematical information; drawing inferences from graphs, diagrams and data, including discussion on limitations of data.
Good to know
- Unit 1 is an 'On-screen examination: 1 hour 30 minutes' worth 60 marks, with 'objective responses, short and extended answers' including 'unseen media works' (Summary of assessment, page 5), so pupils type their extended answers.
- The specification awards no separate marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar or accuracy of language, and says nothing about calculators, dictionaries or word limits (checked across the whole specification).
- Unit 2 is a portfolio under time control: 'Learners will have 18 hours to complete the assessment' (Section 3.2, page 27), so research and writing must be efficient.
- Unit 3 has 'no restriction on the amount of time candidates spend on the assessment' and requires learners to 'Produce a reflective log' alongside two production pieces (Section 3.2, pages 27 and 28).
- Assessment Objective 3, 'Reflect on, analyse and evaluate own work and the work of others', carries 30% of the qualification, split 15% Unit 1, 10% Unit 2 and 5% Unit 3 (Section 3.1, page 26).
- Pre-production planning such as 'storyboards, scripts, hand drawn or digital mock-ups' may be handwritten or digital (Unit 3, Section 3.1.1, page 23).
- Appendix A (page 32) flags literacy (listening, reading, speaking, writing) in all three units but flags numeracy only against the non-examination units.
Links with other GCSEs
At Key Stage 3 this reading and writing work overlaps closely with English film and media units, and the news reliability work links to Humanities and Digital Technology, so a shared analytical paragraph frame across departments would help.
Source: WJEC GCSE Digital Media and Film specification, teaching from 2026, for award from 2028, Version 2, September 2026.