What's it like going to school on the Harry Potter set

BBC News

2 days ago

While many children dream of going to school at Hogwarts, for a lucky few, it is a reality.Filming has begun on a new Harry Potter TV reboot at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, and a temporary school has been built so hundreds of child actors can keep up with real lessons while pretending to learn magical ones.Flick Miles, who doubled for Emma Watson's Hermione in the original films, remembers wearing her Hogwarts uniform while having lessons on set.She said: "We're all there with full hair and makeup. At one point, Hermione has cuts from the Whomping Willow, you'll just be like sitting in your class with a fake nose bleed and a lip wound."
As child actors were only allowed to film for four hours, doubles were used to capture shots where they were seen from behind or far away.While the three leads had private lessons, other members of the supporting cast attended classrooms down the corridor from the dressing rooms.The young actors would attend the school for most of the academic year, as they might be needed at any moment.Between Year 6 and Year 9, the young actress only went to her normal school in Barnet, north London, for 15 days.She said: "To get your license to work, your school has to be on board with you having that time off and working... Which actually at first my school weren't that happy with me doing."Initially, her school only released her for 30 of the 180 days Warner Bros had requested for filming, but Mrs Miles' parents fought for her to have the opportunity.
Due to their filming schedule, children had lessons at different times, but every child on set had to spend a minimum of three hours a day in school.She recalled: "Assistant directors will be checking how many hours you've done because if you haven't hit your three, then you're going to have to go back into school for like half an hour before you can go down to set."But say you've done your hours and they're like 'no we don't need you again for another hour,' you'll carry on schooling."Lessons were monitored by runners who tracked each half-hour a child spent in lessons or on breaks, she explained.
Class sizes were small, and Mrs Miles remembers there being about seven pupils at most on busy days, much smaller than the potential 600 students at the school being used for the reboot."You could be in with anybody," she said. "It wasn't a set a set class, if that makes sense."She'd often find herself sharing lessons with young stars of the film, such as Tom Felton, Matthew Lewis or Alfred Enoch.Each student had an independent curriculum, and teachers from their original schools would tell the tutors on set what each child needed to be learning.Mrs Miles said: "They wouldn't stand at the front and be like 'this is what we're doing today'. They would individually give you their attention and set you on your task, so we'd all be doing different work."
She praised her teachers who kept lessons engaging and added: "They really tried to make sure we had fun and we were doing all the things that we should be doing, which I think was probably really hard for them. "They were really understanding of the fact that we were also working, which is quite weird, having a group of like 10, 11, 12-year-olds who are also working full-time. "If you're at school, you're there nine to three, but if you're filming, you're there a lot longer. I think they were really understanding with the wide range of emotions you feel as a child working on a film set."
Now, a new group of children are heading to the same film studio to shoot a new version of the JK Rowling books, including 11-year-old Dominic McLaughlin as the title character.Mrs Miles, who now lives only a short drive away in St Albans, advised any young actors joining the wizarding world to "enjoy it"."It's really a once-in-a-lifetime thing working on something like Harry Potter- well, it might not be now," she laughed."But it's a really unique experience, and it's kind of weird because when you're in it, it just becomes normal life. "When you come out the other side, you look back at it and you're like 'wow, that was so amazing,' the things we got to do, the different experiences and all the incredibly talented people, which sort of goes over your head as a child."The best thing about being a child is you just take it all in for what it is, but I think really just enjoy it, make the most of every opportunity that you have there."
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