Students’ award-winning films to be shown in schools nationwide
12th February 2026 – Tags: Media Learning Company
An award-winning collection of films about exploitation, made by Media Learning Company students from City College Norwich, will be seen by young people up and down the country after being included in resources for schools developed by the Pol-Ed programme.
The films were originally produced 2 years ago by Kapcha Productions, the 2023-24 cohort of students on the college’s innovative Media Learning Company course.
Know The Signs campaign
Commissioned by Norfolk Community Safety Partnership, the films were produced for the Know The Signs campaign, which was launched in March 2025.
‘The Maze: A Journey Through Exploitation’ is a ten-minute film about a teenage boy drawn into a gang, using a maze to demonstrate the push and pull factors of being drawn into an exploitative relationship that leads to drug trafficking and serious violence.
‘Draw My Life’ is a series of three animated short films telling the story of Emily, her best friend Jakob, and her mother Rebecca, as Emily is exploited by someone she believed she was in a relationship with.
Ambitious film and graphics
“The students worked hard to get under the skin of the issues young people in their community face,” says Lorraine Sutherland, course leader for the Media Learning Company.
Lorraine continues: "They went on to pitch, budget, script, write, cast, shoot, edit, design and then deliver an incredible array of ambitious films and graphics.
“They worked in tough environments on numerous locations, with cast, shooting in country estate mazes at dawn in freezing conditions. But all the hard work was worth it. The stakeholders were blown away by the students' ideas, skills, and the resulting films.”
The film project was a winner of a Norfolk Flourish award in 2024 collected on behalf of the group by Amelia Golden (centre).
Awards successes
The quality and impact of the students’ work have not only recognised by the organisations who commissioned the films. The exceptional quality of the films saw the students’ films win awards at the 2024 Norfolk County Council Flourish Awards and the 2025 Royal Society of Television Student Awards.
Former Media Learning Company student Amelia Golden, who directed ‘The Maze’, and is now adding to her media production experience by working freelance, said:
I am proud of how the film turned out considering the challenges we faced. We only had a short amount of time to make it and had to cast externally for some of the roles, as well as having to find a green maze in the middle of winter. The research and focus groups we carried out paid off and I’m glad the film is going to be shown more widely in schools.”
Edward East, who now creates video content for Norwich City Community Sports Foundation, took on the roles of casting director and camera operator for the filming of ‘The Maze’, as well as being editor for some of the other projects. Edward adds:
It was a lot of fun. It kind of blew my mind back then. It was quite a hard project, so it was a relief to get it done. We were all happy and excited with the finished films. It was a bonus that the Norfolk Community Safety Partnership liked the films and to know that they are now being widely used.”
The Maze was filmed by the students for Norfolk Community Safety Partnership's Know The Signs campaign.
Praise for the students’ work
Mark Stokes, Chair of the Norfolk Community Safety Partnership, said:
We are absolutely thrilled that the films will be seen across a wider audience. This is testament to the professionalism and quality of the work produced by the Media Learning Company and the students should be very proud of the legacy they have created with these films.
The students never fail to deliver an exceptional, innovative product and provide an invaluable insight into what young people will respond to. These films have already won two awards, and we are working with this year’s cohort on a new project so let’s see what 2026 brings.”
Colin Dutton and Natalie Outred, Children & Young People Team, Norfolk Constabulary, said:
Pol-Ed is a range of PSHE resources that Norfolk Constabulary have bought for education providers, local youth groups, the local authority, and officers to get important messages of safety across to young people. We hope that by providing this collaborative resource we can give free access and consistent messaging to young people. In using the resources, we hope that young people can become more resilient, spot signs of risk in their own lives and their friends’ lives, and know where to seek help.
We are so pleased that the national team want to use the Know Your Signs resources as a national resource. Their resources only use high quality assets, so it is testament to the young people of the perception of their work. This means that ultimately many more thousands of young people nationwide will be impacted by the films the Media Learning Company students have produced. Well done to the students!”
Find out more about the Media Learning Company