‘Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.’
– Albus Dumbledore
The team at our Farnborough Day Centre hold regular student meetings, and based on an idea of a trip to Harry Potter World, “Harry Potter Season” was born. They wanted to offer something slightly different to the usual theme days that they hold throughout the year, this time focusing on the winter months as some people may find this time of the year difficult for various reasons. Each month in October, November and December the team gathered together to plan Harry Potter-themed activities, which incorporated tactile, auditory and visual elements to enable everyone to be involved.
Staff supported students to participate in enchanting activities that included:
- Designing and making a Dragon’s Eye using salt dough or modelling clay, marble for the eyeball and decorated with paint.
- A Harry Potter House sorting and choosing of Wizard Names
- Acting out iconic scene from the Chamber of Secrets film, where the letters arrived through the letterbox, windows, the chimney,
- Fun games like ‘Pin the sock on Dobby’ and fun facts and quizzes.
Professor Snape’s Bubbling Potions was a perfect science experiment for the students around cause and effect and chemical reactions. Staff made up cabbage water by soaking red cabbage in hot water. Staff assisted students to then add a few drops to jars containing different solutions. There was:
- Fatigue Infusion (plain water)
- Love Potion (lemon juice)
- Drink of Despair (water with hand sanitiser)
- Drink of Forgetfulness (water and sugar)
- Befuddlement Draught (water and vinegar)
- Aging Potion (water and bleach)
- Shrinking Solution (bicarbonate of soda and water)
Students could see the potions changing in different ways, due to the chemical reaction and they were asked to guess questions, such as; what colour the solutions would be? Would the potion fizz or bubble?
Displays and Artwork
Students made candles that hung from the ceilings to decorate the room like The Great Hall, in another room they had letters hanging down from the ceiling.
Halloween lends itself to witches and wizard activities, students decorated jars and filled with items that could be used in spells such as spiders, cobwebs, berries and leaves. Students made witches hats to that were put on display.
One of the arts boards depicted a scene of the Hogwarts Express and the Weasley’s flying car and on the other art board the Whomping Willow Tree blossomed pictures from the students visits to Harry Potter World and activities that had been done at the Centre.
Thank you to the amazing artists at Snow Windows who recreated the Hogwarts castle and the Hogwarts Express on the window panes at 94 Whetstone Road.
Harry Potter Trips Out
The staff team arranged three separate trips covering October, November and December as nine students expressed an interest in going to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour near London. Each trip enabled 3 students to enjoy the magic of Harry Potter over the festive seasons of Halloween and Christmas, a lot of the visitors to the studio dress up as characters from the films or sporting their Hogwarts House Colours including our own staff and Students, for two of the students it was their first long-distance trip, which was thoroughly enjoyed.
The amenities at the studio include several places to eat and drink, an accessible toilet with space for a disabled person and up to two Carers with a hoist and a changing bed. There is a Sensory room and Sensory chair that can be accessed if required and of course the gift shop.
There were plenty of interactive exhibits for students to experience a complimentary Activity Passport which includes a fun Golden Snitch hunt, puzzles, the passport also includes space for souvenir stamps that can be collected at key points throughout the tour. Which the students enjoyed collecting as they went around the tour.
Richard’s favourite part of the trip was casting spells and fighting the Death Eaters, other students enjoyed seeing Hogwarts in the snow.
