As part of our work on enriching our pupil’s curriculum and bringing Literacy alive, our children were extremely keen to visit the making of Harry Potter at the Studio Tour in Leavesden.
On arrival to the tour, the children took part in a ‘Magic Maths’ lesson whereby they were supported with thinking about maths was and is used when creating films. The children discussed needing to be able to use money to budget, buy props and materials and pay for actors and staff. They explored the need to understanding shape, space and measure to create sets and think about scaling props up or down dependent on the character. They also thought about needing to tell the time in order to complete filming in a given time frame. The children enjoyed seeing some of the props and costume up close and found it funny to see how big Hagrid’s trousers were!
We then entered the tour itself whereby we got to see the different sets, props and costumes used in the making of Harry Potter. We all go to ride a broomstick and experience what this would feel like. We were able to hunt for Golden Snitches throughout the tour. We explored the Forbidden Forest and enjoyed walking through the Hogwarts Express at platform 9 and 3/4. We were able to see Gringotts Bank and the dragon really surprised us.
The children had a fantastic experience and were able to see how a book can be the gateway to a whole new world. Many children gave use great feedback with one child saying “this has been the best day ever!”.
