School Life notes
30 notes on the school day, feasts, rules and customs, written for wizarding-school roleplay. Each one has a teaching tip for professors.
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A school day runs from breakfast in the Great Hall through morning and afternoon lessons to dinner, with evenings for homework.
- Lessons start after breakfast and are split by a break and by lunch.
- Some lessons are doubles, twice the usual length.
- Evenings are spent in the common room or the library.
- Astronomy is the exception: it happens at night.
Teaching tip: Open a scene by naming the time of day. It tells every student where their character has just come from and what mood they are in.
The year begins on 1 September and ends in early summer, with holidays at Christmas and Easter.
- Autumn term: September to December.
- Christmas holidays: students may go home or stay at the castle.
- Spring term, then the Easter holidays.
- Summer term ends with exams in June, then the journey home.
Teaching tip: Keep a simple class calendar and mention the season in your scenes. Snow, exams and holidays all give students something to play.
Everyone eats together at the four long house tables, and the food appears on the plates by itself.
- The food is cooked in the kitchens below and sent up by magic.
- Staff sit at the high table at the far end.
- The morning post arrives by owl during breakfast.
- You sit at your own house table for meals, most of all at feasts.
Teaching tip: Meals are the easiest scenes to run. Set one small event, such as a letter arriving or a dropped goblet, and let students react.
The year opens with a feast on the first evening, which begins with the Sorting of the new first-years.
- Older students arrive first and watch the Sorting from their tables.
- The head of the school gives a short speech and the start-of-year notices.
- Afterwards, prefects lead the first-years to their common rooms.
Teaching tip: Run the feast in three beats: the Sorting, the head's welcome, then the food. Give each student one line in each beat.
The castle marks the year with feasts: the start of term, Hallowe'en, Christmas, and the end of term.
- Hallowe'en: pumpkins, bats and sweets in the Great Hall.
- Christmas: the hall is filled with decorated trees, and students who stay eat together at one table.
- End of term: the hall is hung with the colours of the house that won the House Cup.
Teaching tip: Plan one special class each term around a feast. Decorations and food are an easy way to make a scene feel different.
Each house has its own common room, a private place to relax, study and talk with housemates.
- Each has its own hidden entrance and its own way in.
- You do not bring students from other houses inside, and you never share the way in.
- There is usually a fire, armchairs, tables for homework and a notice board.
Teaching tip: Set an evening scene in a common room with no lesson at all. Students play homework, games or gossip, and you only step in if it stalls.
Students sleep in dormitories off their common room, shared with others of the same house and year.
- Each student has a four-poster bed with curtains.
- Your trunk is brought up and left at the foot of your bed.
- Boys and girls have separate dormitories.
Teaching tip: Morning scenes work well here. Ask each student how their character wakes up: early, late, or dragged out by a roommate.
Students wear plain black robes for lessons, with a pointed hat and a winter cloak for formal or cold days.
- In most tellings, a tie or scarf shows your house colours.
- Protective gloves are needed for Herbology and Potions.
- Robes should be kept tidy. Staff notice.
Teaching tip: Ask students to describe how their character wears the uniform: neat, rumpled, sleeves rolled. It says a lot in one line.
Each student brings a wand, a cauldron, a set of books, and tools such as scales, phials and a telescope.
- Quills, ink and parchment are used for all written work.
- The list arrives with your school letter before term.
- First-years are not allowed their own broomstick.
Teaching tip: Start a lesson with a kit check. A student who forgot something has an instant reason to talk to a classmate.
The castle is huge and it changes. Staircases move, some steps are tricks, and doors do not always lead where they did yesterday.
- Leave early for lessons until you know the way.
- Portraits and ghosts will often give directions if asked politely.
- There are hidden passages, but being caught in one after hours means trouble.
Teaching tip: Let a first-year arrive late and flustered, and reward the student who explains the way in character.
Your head of house hands out your timetable at the start of the year. It shows every lesson, the room and the day.
- Core subjects fill most of the week.
- Older students have free periods, meant for study.
- Being late costs house points.
Teaching tip: Hand out a simple class timetable for your group. It lets students say where they are coming from and where they must be next.
Most lessons end with homework, often an essay measured by the length of parchment it must fill.
- Teachers ask for so many inches, or a full roll, of parchment.
- Other homework is practical: practising a charm or charting the sky.
- Copying a friend's work is cheating and is punished.
Teaching tip: Set homework as a single in-character question, due next class. Read one good answer aloud and award points.
Students study in the library or the common room, alone or in small groups.
- The library must be kept quiet.
- Study groups help, as long as everyone does their share.
- Fifth- and seventh-years study hardest, because of their exams.
Teaching tip: Run a revision scene before an exam class. Students quiz each other using this site's quiz mode, in character.
Students may bring one pet: an owl, a cat or a toad.
- Owls live in the Owlery and carry your post.
- Cats and toads stay in the dormitory.
- You are responsible for your pet and for any mess it makes.
Teaching tip: Give pets a small part in a scene now and then. A toad on the loose is a reliable way to get quiet students involved.
After evening hours, students must be in their own common room or dormitory.
- Prefects and staff patrol the corridors.
- Being caught out of bed costs house points or earns detention.
- Night-time Astronomy lessons are the one allowed exception.
Teaching tip: State your group's curfew hour clearly. Night scenes are exciting because the rule exists, so let rule-breakers risk real consequences.
Outside lessons, students join clubs and play wizard games.
- Clubs include a duelling club, a charms club and a choir.
- Popular games are wizard chess, Gobstones and Exploding Snap.
- House teams and their supporters take up many weekends.
Teaching tip: Let students found a club in character. Even a two-member club gives them scenes to run without a professor.
Wizard sweets are part of school life, bought on the train, in the village, or sent from home.
- Chocolate Frogs come with a collectible card of a famous witch or wizard.
- Pumpkin pasties and cauldron cakes are favourites on the journey to school.
- Pumpkin juice is served at meals, and butterbeer is a treat in the village.
Teaching tip: Bring a treat into a scene as a reward or an ice-breaker. Students love describing what card or flavour they got.
Wizards use three coins: gold Galleons, silver Sickles and bronze Knuts.
- 17 Sickles make one Galleon.
- 29 Knuts make one Sickle.
- Most school things, like sweets and quills, cost Sickles and Knuts.
“Seventeen Sickles to a Galleon, twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle.”
Teaching tip: Give each student a small purse for a village trip and let them haggle. It teaches the coins faster than a chart.
The school is run by a headmaster or headmistress, a deputy, and the teachers, four of whom are heads of house.
- The caretaker enforces the rules in the corridors.
- The matron runs the hospital wing, and the librarian runs the library.
- The gamekeeper looks after the grounds and the forest.
Teaching tip: Tell your class which staff roles your group has filled, so students know who their characters would go to.
The castle has residents who are not students or staff: ghosts, talking portraits and one troublesome poltergeist.
- Each house has its own ghost, and most are friendly.
- Portraits talk, sleep, and visit each other's frames.
- The poltergeist is not a ghost. He plays tricks, and only a few people can make him behave.
Teaching tip: Voice a portrait or ghost yourself for a line or two. It makes the castle feel alive without needing another player.
The first week is for learning the way to lessons, the house rules, and who to ask for help.
- Ask a prefect first. That is their job.
- Your head of house deals with bigger problems.
- Everyone gets lost in the first week. Leave early and ask.
“Excuse me, which way is the Charms corridor?”
Teaching tip: Pair every newcomer with an older student for their first week. Give the older student a point for each time they help.
Most students start at eleven, but now and then someone joins in a later year and has to catch up.
- A late starter is still Sorted into a house.
- They may need extra lessons to catch up on earlier years.
- It is a good reason for a character to be skilled at some things and lost at others.
Teaching tip: A late starter is a gift to a class. Let them ask the obvious questions, so everyone hears the answers again.
In fifth year, each student meets their head of house to talk about what they want to do after school.
- The talk decides which subjects to carry on with after the fifth-year exams.
- Some careers need top marks in several subjects.
- Not knowing yet is normal, and a good thing to roleplay.
Teaching tip: Hold a careers meeting as a one-to-one scene. Ask the student what their character wants, then tell them which subjects they need.
Students start at age 11 and study for seven years.
- O.W.L. exams come in fifth year, N.E.W.T. exams in seventh.
- Pass grades: Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, Acceptable.
- Fail grades: Poor, Dreadful, Troll.
Teaching tip: Give each student a year and ask what exam is next for them. It anchors characters at the right level of knowledge.
Core classes: Astronomy, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions and Transfiguration.
- First years also take flying lessons.
- Electives from third year: Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies.
Teaching tip: Make a class timetable together. Students pick a core subject and an elective and explain why their character chose it.
The Hogwarts Express leaves King's Cross from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on 1 September.
- First years cross the lake by boat. Older students ride the carriages.
Teaching tip: Open the term with a train-journey scene. Each student introduces their character in one line and gets a reaction from another.
Each wand has a wood and a magical core. The wand chooses the wizard.
- Common cores: unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, phoenix feather.
Teaching tip: Character-building prompt: students pick a wood and a core and explain in two sentences why that wand might have chosen them.
The wizarding sport, played on broomsticks with seven players a side.
- 3 Chasers score with the Quaffle (10 points a goal). 1 Keeper guards the hoops.
- 2 Beaters knock the Bludgers away.
- 1 Seeker catches the Golden Snitch: 150 points and the game ends.
Teaching tip: Teach positions with a quick quiz: call a play, and students shout the role and the points. Keep scoring to a simple tally.
Also on: Flying
Prefects are chosen in fifth year to help keep order. Breaking rules costs house points or earns detention.
- No wandering the corridors at night.
- The Forbidden Forest is out of bounds.
Teaching tip: Agree class rules together as a scene exercise, including what a fair detention looks like. It sets expectations in character.
From third year, students with a signed permission form can visit the village on set weekends.
- Hogsmeade is the only all-wizarding village in Britain.
Teaching tip: Plan a village outing. Students show a permission form in character and say one place they would visit and why.
