West Michigan Students Can Be Harry Potter With New Hogwarts Experience
West Michigan may be turning into a Harry Potter world soon!
A few students across West Michigan will be able to experience how it would be to live in the world of Harry Potter and magic.
How is this working?
West Michigan's 'Hogwarts' Experience
A few Grandville Public Schools' fifth and sixth graders will be living a life that many 'muggles' would dream of.
When 850 students came back to school, they were assigned to one of four "houses." Similar to the Hogwarts houses, the students were split into different "houses" with their names, colors, and more.
Each of the four houses comes with its backstories: Reveur, Isibindi, Altruismo, and Amistad.
The Oakestown Immediate School students will be competing in friendly competitions to gain points for their respective houses. The students can gain more points for good character, academic success or improvement, and more.
Once a student is placed in a house, they will stay with that house for the entire two years with meetings every Wednesday.
Reminiscent of the Harry Potter movies and books, at the end of the year, the house with the most points will be able to decorate the lobby of the school plus all of the staff members will wear that house's colors all day.
This "Hogwarts" experience is modeled after, The Ron Clark Academy, a private middle school in Atlanta.
Grandville Superintendent, Roger Bearup, shared with MLive the importance of bringing this experience to the West Michigan school.
"It really unifies the school by building larger connections than you would have with only the teachers you have and the students you see in class."
While the students will be involved in the houses, the school is allowing all school staff to participate as well, including lunch and janitorial staff.
As a huge fan of Harry Potter, I would have loved this experience at my school. I probably would have focused more.
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Gallery Credit: Jacob Harrison