Accepted to Hogwarts!

In the fall, I'll finally return to teaching full-time at a local middle/high school (11 - 18 year olds).
I'll be teaching math (or as they say here, maths... don't think I'll ever get the hang of that!).

It's a regular public school, but (for me) it'll be like working at Hogwarts!

For Americans, I think everything at Hogwarts seemed so fanciful (even magical... haha!).  Uniforms and houses and head boys/girls and O.W.L.'s and N.E.W.T.'s and all the rest.  But, did you know -- many schools here in the UK are exactly like that!  It's not fanciful for them.  It's just, well, normal school stuff.

There are six houses in my school, and the kids really are sorted into their houses at age 11 when they join the school for their first year.  There are heads of houses, a house head boy and head girl, and each house has its own color.  Students even earn/lose points for their house!

Each student wears a dark green blazer over a collared white shirt.  They wear black skirts with stockings or slacks (oh wait... trousers).  Their jackets have a patch with the school crest, and both girls and boys wear striped ties with their house colors.  They are so cute!
(Those aren't my students in the picture -- just a really close example of their uniforms).

When they are 16, students take the real-world version of O.W.L.'s (called GCSE's), and then they get to choose which three or fours subjects they will take for their real-world version of N.E.W.T.'s (called A-levels).  A kid can choose to take math (no... maths!) or English or music or whatever subjects they want to take.  Of course, students take the core subjects if they want to get into a good university (not college -- I've learned college is usually how Brits refer to special top-level high schools).

Unfortunately, I don't think they offer 'Care of Magical Creatures' or 'Divination', though ;-)