Creative Kids Learn Wizarding Ways

Earlier in the Autumn term, teachers of English Mrs Hallam and Mr Alcock, and DT Teacher and ex-Potter Set Designer Mr Bayley accompanied Year 7 to the Harry Potter Studio Tours in Watford. 

The Year 7 boys were tasked to take inspiration from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and produce a six-chapter story from their findings. Below is the report provided by James Coe, Will Mason, Wilf Jennings and Alec Steel. 

'On a balmy November morning, 27 excited explorers set out to explore the magic of Harry Potter, drawing links between the world of Hogwarts and the unexpected adventures of a Hobbit named Bilbo.

The day started with a lesson in the world of Harry Potter, and we learned about the work behind the scenes to build characters, locations and plots in order to write our own quest/adventure story.

Models of goblins’ heads and hands were dotted around the classroom so that we could inspect them closely (but no touching!). We then moved on to Hagrid’s ginormous, gargantuan and voluminous trousers (triple adjective description- key technique Miss Hallam!) and Hagrid’s head that appeared to float and hover above the sea of fascinated students (imagery, Miss!).

As the details of how best to develop a character emerged, so did a detailed model of Hagrid’s house: high, small windows to see out but not in; cages for injured creatures hanging from the ceiling; a trap door (what secrets lurked beneath his house?). We posed and answered questions to gain a deeper insight into Hagrid’s world and character, and started to think about developing characters and settings for our stories.

As discussion reached fever pitch, a plot twist: we had to reduce our ideas and pitch a plot in 25 words to sell to a film company!

Finally, we 27 writers were released into the world of Harry Potter where we explored the sets and gathered descriptive language, imagery and plot twists. Eventually, our adventure drew to a close, once we had taught Dobby to ‘Floss’, raced up Diagon Alley and taken the obligatory broomstick photo. We all found that learning to write creatively proved to be quite magical!'