Alabama School Transformed into Hogwarts

What better way is there to get your pupils excited about going to school and the prospect of reading than to transform their hallways and classrooms into Hogwarts from J.K. Rowling’s much-loved Harry Potter Series? Well, Parkside Elementary School in Baileyton, Alabama did just that!

Magical creatures adorn the walls, potion bottles stand on shelves, dementors hang from the ceiling, pages of the Quibbler are flyered about, there’s even a Mirror of Erised. The Seventh and Eighth-grade students at this school returning from their summer vacations were greeted by an exciting creation.

Parkside is a public school attended by approximately 360 children from Kindergarten through to Eighth Grade. As a ‘Title One’ school, it has a high percentage of students living at or below the poverty line.

Jacy Douglas, an English Language, Arts, and reading teacher, explained why they choose to transform the school into a magical castle, “We wanted to make our school a bit of an escape from the ordinary, where all of our students can see reading come to life and escape any negativity that might be happening elsewhere in their lives. Even for students who have excellent home lives, middle school can be a difficult age; we want our students to look forward to coming into our classrooms to learn and grow.”

Jacy and some of the other teachers at the school had discussed the idea for several years, and their dream began to blossom in May 2017, when their principal, Mr. Richard Orr, arranged for the classrooms to be painted. With their Hogwarts idea in mind, they choose their colours to reflect each one of the four Hogwarts houses. Ravenclaw for Jacy Douglas, Slytherin for Tracey Jones who teaches Math, Gryffindor for Karen Moon who teaches Science, and Hufflepuff for the history classroom.

Ravenclaw:

For her classroom, Jacy Douglas decided she wanted to use flexible seating and recreate the Ravenclaw’s common room. She found a fireplace, sofas and dining room tables to create a cozy and inviting feel. A former student, Donna Gifford, also painted the raven on the vivid blue walls of the classroom.

Douglas’ favourite aspect of her room is, however, none of the latterly mentioned aspects. In fact, it is the book columns built outside the classroom. She told Books Bird, “The end result is dramatic and it’s perfect for my English Language Arts Classroom.” She then added, “As a teacher, a goal I always have for my students is to ‘find the right book.’ For some of them, that’s easy. They already understand the concept of reading for pleasure, enjoy choosing their reading material, and are willing to talk about the characters they’ve met. For others, it’s more difficult to find something they truly enjoy reading. For those students, it is critical for them to see that reading doesn’t have to be a bore or a burden because there are many different options and types of books or other reading material available.”

Slytherin:

The Math classroom has been created to look like Snape’s potions dungeon. Mrs. Jones built her own tables from leftover shelves which she cut and stained. Bottles of ‘potions’ and ‘ingredients’ line the shelves. Textbooks have been recovered to look like books from the Harry Potter series. A knight, which come to life to protect the school in Rowling’s books, even stands in the corner of the room.

Gryffindor:

Karen Moon loves teaching the life element of science and, therefore, decided to turn her classroom into Hagrid’s Hut, complete with a jutting roof over the classroom door. Outside the classroom are paintings of the Hippogriff Buckbeak, a dragon, and the three-headed dog/Cerberus Fluffy. Inside the classroom, you can see even more examples of creatures you might find in ‘Care of Magical Creatures’ classes, including; a phoenix and an acromantula.

Hufflepuff:

The history classroom represents the fourth and final Hogwarts house. Initially, the teacher for this room wanted to keep a traditional classroom appearance inside. However, after the success of the transformations on student behaviour, the teacher has since begun investigating the idea of turning her class into another of the rooms from the Hogwarts Castle, which should hopefully be completed for students by the beginning to the next school year. Until then, students that feel they belong in Hufflepuff are represented by the Hufflepuff themed classroom entry which was created this summer with the permission of the history teacher.

Hallways:

It is not just the classrooms that have been given the magical make-over, the hallways too, are full to the brim with Harry Potter references. Trees have been erected to recreate the forbidden forest. A platform 9 ¾ sign can be seen next to a trolley disappearing into the wall, complete with an owl in a cage and a trunk for all your wizarding robes. Tracey Jones created the portraits of the Hogwarts founders, headmasters, and paintings (such as the Fat lady who guards the entrance to the Gryffindor common room). with a colour printer and frames found in thrift shops and garage sales.

The school also raised money by hosting a race, the proceeds from which went to commissioning murals for the walls, painted by local artist Aaron Sullivan. The flying car from Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets swoops across the hallways. The Hogwarts Express waits at Platform 9 ¾, and Hagrid stands proudly on Diagon Alley.

The creation and results:

To bring this amazing transformation to life, it took Jacy and Tracey two summers and countless hours, they even joked that they needed to get out before the motion detectors came on at night otherwise they would set the alarm off.

But they certainly weren’t alone and had plenty of help and support along the way. Douglas tells us, “We had lots of donations of supplies, especially from our ‘Adopt-a-School’ partner, Walker Bros. LTD.” She also added that “Tracey’s husband came with her on weekends to build the columns in front of her room, the wooden arch for the Hufflepuff classroom, and the bricks around one of the exit door facings.” Once the word about what they were hoping to achieve got out, plenty of people began to chip in, including parents of students and members of the local community.

The finished project was first revealed to the children during the school’s open house held a few days before the start of this new school year. While the students may have already seen hints of the project on social media, this was their first chance to see it in person. Jacy Douglas recounts their reaction. She tells us, “The students’ reaction to the hallway was, in a word, priceless. I wish we had been able to get more photos and videos of their faces during the open house.”

Jacy speaks proudly of the creation, explaining, “The entire transformation was done on a shoestring budget. We want our students to know that it’s possible to set goals and make something remarkable, even if there’s not a lot of money to spend.” She adds, “We wanted our classrooms to be a safe haven where students who maybe don’t have much support at home can feel loved and appreciated… we want them to know that they matter to us.” What’s more, not only has Parkside’s new appearance created a safe haven, but Douglas also pointed out that they have seen an improvement in behaviour which has resulted in a decrease in detentions.

Now this transformation is complete, the school continues to raise money to ensure that students feel valued and cared for. Monetary donations for classroom items can be made to the Donorschoose page at donorschoosedouglas .