A SCHOOL underwent a magical transformation in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Brighton and Hove High School turned into Hogwarts as part of its Harry Potter day yesterday, with a shake-up in the timetable for pupils to live a day in the life of a wizard.
The fun began with a quiz about JK Rowling’s famous films, which Ravenclaw won, and girls competed for the House Quidditch Cup on the school grounds.
Kate Ashdown, head of English at the school, dressed as Professor Dumbledore for the day.
She said: “We thought we would seize the 20th anniversary of the Philosopher’s Stone as an opportunity to collaborate our love of books with Harry Potter.
“The books have been magical for getting kids into reading.
“It was really popular with the students and it is all for a good cause.
“We have a house system at the school, and we sorted them into the Harry Potter houses.
“Some of our students’ knowledge of the books is encyclopaedic, it’s incredible.
“It was completely mad but completely wonderful.”
Throughout the day, the girls studied charms, transfiguration and made wands to get a feel of the Hogwarts life and there were teachings in the care of magical creatures from the biology department at the school.
There was also a Hogwarts feast which consisted of chocolate frogs and other Harry Potter delicacies.
Ms Ashdown said the wand making workshop was the most popular along with the Quidditch Cup.
“We were all living the dream,” she said.
“Students were taking selfies with Harry, Ron and Hermione all day – it’s just a shame they were only cardboard cut-outs.
“It’s going to be hard to come back to normal work.”
Schoolchildren paid £1 to wear Hogwarts-appropriate uniform to support the Afghan Connection charity, which helps build schools in Afghanistan.
Ms Ashdown said: “It is such a brilliant charity which is close to us, so it is amazing to help raise money for them.”
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