TWO new qualifications are being offered for study at Prince Henry's Grammar School at Otley.

Students can now opt for a Media Studies A-Level and it is already proving very popular popular, with 16 choosing the course.

The GCSE Media Studies results this year were the best achieved to date with 21 passes at A-grade or above. However, it was the requests by students that has brought about the new course, rather than the excellent results.

Student Jenny Healey said: "It is great that Media Studies is offered as an A-Level at school. It influenced my decision to stay on at school rather than go to college."

The head of Media Studies, Lorraine Bradley, who has an Master of Arts degree in film, said: "This is a brilliant opportunity, especially now that media is one of the fastest growing degree courses."

And one of the first benefits of Language College status for the school is that it is now able to offer Spanish at GCSE alongside French and German. The response to the course has been excellent with students from Year Nine upwards eager to learn the language.

As well as the GCSE, Spanish is also taught in Year Nine PSE classes and as a unit of the GNVQ business course.

The year 13 students will be putting the language into action when they do work experience in Lanzarote. Several bilingual year 12 students are also taking the GCSE alongside their A-Level studies.

A pen friend link is currently being established and plans are under way to offer more language courses in the future.

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