A MEDIA studies teacher has been picked for a starring film role in America this summer.

The British Film Industry has selected Jane Sweetlove, a teacher at Turton High School Media Arts College to travel to Baltimore in July to address an international conference about the use of film technology in education.

Jane, who has built a wealth of experience in the field is one of three British teachers chosen to go to the conference.

Currently, Turton High School is at the forefront of advancing film making in the classroom, but Jane has also done her own research into teaching film technology.

She said: "I was very surprised to be chosen to go to this huge conference. In America, they have not been using film technology for education as much as British schools have. They have been more interested in protecting children against harmful things in the media."

At Turton, pupils can take part in a range of media education activities.

All Year Seven pupils take part in a unique course in which they can learn about digital editing.

The school is also starting an advanced course for Year Nine pupils who will be able to make short films of themselves acting out scenes from set texts such as Shakespeare.

Jane said this will not only familiarise pupils with texts, but will also allow them to develop skills in directing, acting and visual mixing.

Along with the courses, Turton school has hi-tech media facilities and even has its own TV studio where pupils can hold their Press conferences, host their own TV shows and make films of topical debates between pupils.

Jane expects to also talk at the conference about the research she has personally carried out.

She said: "My research involved comparing pupils who were being taught digital video editing by me with pupils who had quite a lot of computer experience and had to figure out how to do it themselves. I found that on the whole, pupils prefer to be shown how to do digital video editing."