The Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Harry Potter (26 page)

Of the top four British boarding schools, two are for boys only; Worksop alone is coeducational, and Charterhouse admits girls for only the last two years. Although Great Britain boasts many girls’ boarding schools, not one all-girls school is considered even close to being in the same league as the top all-boys schools.

At Hogwarts, students are grouped into four houses, and they compete for the House Championship, which is awarded as a House Cup. The Hogwarts House Championship is earned, as at other boarding schools, through athletic competition, prowess in the classroom, and good behavior.

The Hogwarts houses (called the Hogwarts Four) are each named for the four founders of the school.

Students are sorted into houses with the help of the Sorting Hat (see Chapter 3). During the Sorting Ceremony, first-year students pull on the large hat (which usually dwarfs their small heads) while sitting on a stool in front of the student body. The hat then reads the mind of (and sometimes speaks to) the student, trying to discern the personality, gifts, and ambitions of each student.

Two noticeable differences exist between Hogwarts houses and the top British boarding schools. First, as a general rule, British boarding schools allow students to choose their own houses (which is why some houses are bigger than others). Students must be accepted by the House Master, and everyone understands that the House Master may not be the House Master the entire time that student is at the school. However, the House Master is the gatekeeper—the Sorting Hat of the Muggle world—taking applications from incoming students who would like to live in that particular house.

Second, houses in British schools do not have personalities; at least, the schools do not officially acknowledge that one house is more intelligent, while another is more athletic, for example. Houses at British boarding schools are supposed to be diverse groups that reflect the makeup of the student body at large. Hogwarts’ houses, on the other hand, have distinct personalities that reflect those of the founders.

Hogwarts School is set in a castle, complete with towers, turrets, dungeons, on the banks of a lake. Like most castles (both those in real life and those in literature), it can be dark and cold, although eager house elves (see Chapter 2) keep the fires burning in common areas. Each house has its own section of the castle, and classrooms are either on the main floors, in dungeons, or in towers. There is also a library, overseen by Madam Irma Pince (from the French
pince-nez,
small glasses that pinched the nose instead of gaining stability by wrapping around the ears), which has both a Restricted Section (for which students must have special permission from professors) and an Invisibility Section, which, one presumes, is rather difficult to locate!

The Hogwarts Great Hall is patterned after the enormous halls in both British castles and castles throughout literature (think of the many great halls mentioned in J.R.R. Tolkien’s
The Lord of the Rings
alone). The Great Hall has a bewitched ceiling that reflects the weather outside the castle. At the High Table sits the Hogwarts faculty; students sit at long tables—one for each house. The hall is usually decorated to match the season or other occasion; for some occasions, thousands of candles float magically above the tables.

Students at Hogwarts are admitted to certain areas (house common rooms, the headmaster’s office) by means of a portrait, painting, or statue, which demands a password from students, rather like the electronic passkeys used at many schools. Passwords at Hogwarts are changed every few weeks and, of course, some students have trouble remembering them. (These are the same students who can never remember their locker combinations in the Muggle world.) In addition, the numerous staircases at Hogwarts move periodically, which befuddles most first-year students. The way you came up (to a classroom, for example) may not be the way you go back down.

Although not widely discussed or even known about, a Marauder’s Map of Hogwarts shows the location of every person in the school, allowing the student(s) in possession of the map to wander the school undetected by avoiding all teachers and staff. On the other hand, if a teacher is in possession of the map, students cannot wander the halls without getting caught. The Marauder’s Map sees even a wizard who is wearing an invisibility cloak (see Chapter 3). A “marauder” is one who roves about in search of plunder, from the French
maraud,
meaning “vagabond” and “tomcat,” both wandering beings, so this is a map for those seeking to roam around and probably up to no good!

Where Hogwarts does differ radically from its British boarding school counterparts is in the curriculum. To illustrate just how different they are, consider that the National Curriculum of the UK includes the following topics:

The list may be a bit more rigorous than most American public schools, but the curriculum is similar nonetheless to what American students study. Hogwarts even has a few classes that look like they could almost fit in:

Clearly, while British schools and Hogwarts differ in curriculum, a few similarities exist. At both Hogwarts and the top British boarding schools, students sometimes double classes; that is, the same class is taken back to back, in order to give students longer class periods in which to learn material. Many U.S. private schools also take this approach, as do some U.S. public schools that are utilizing block scheduling.

In addition, students at both Hogwarts and all the British boarding schools take exams partway through their schooling and again near the end. The first exam is called the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in the Muggle world; Ordinary Wizarding Levels (O.W.L.s) in the wizarding world.

The GCSEs are usually taken after Level 11, which is the equivalent to tenth grade in the U.S. system, or roughly at 16 years of age. Some schools have students take the tests a year or two earlier, but regardless, the year in which exams are taken is usually called the Remove year. Following the Remove Year is either a year called the Fifth Form (if exams are taken earlier than Level 11) or the Sixth Form (if exams are taken at Level 11). The last year in school is usually called the Upper Sixth. Grades in the exams run from A* (A-star; the best) to B, C, D, E, F, and G (the worst). Failing completely means a grade of U (for unclassified).

Students who receive five or more A* to C grades are allowed to take A-LEVEL classes during the Sixth Form. A grade below C in English or math can result in retaking the exam or in leaving school to join the work-force, although that is extremely rare at the best boarding schools.