Wizard Primary School

[OliveOil_Med]

Children start attending Hogwarts when they are eleven years old, but they come to the school already knowing how to read and write, so they had to learn it somewhere.

And in the wizarding world, there are families where both parents work, just like in the Muggle one, so not everyone just has they're mother teach them how to read. I have read stories about families who hire tutors, and even some where small one-room style school houses exist just to teach children the same basic lessons that children in Muggle primary schools learn.

What are some other possibilities that yo have all read? I would love to hear peoples thoughts and opinions.

[Russia Snow]

Well, I have always thought that wizarding childern just attended muggle primary school. I mean, if Muggle-born wizards attend it, why shouldn't Pure-bloods? It isn't legal for childern under 11 years of age to use magic, or own a wand, so there shouldnt be any problem with them attending Muggle school. Also, children need to learn basic maths skills, and like you said, to read and write, seen as Muggle school teaches this, I think Wizards would attend too.

This is not based on anything other than my thoughts really... But I hope I helped

Russia xxxxx

[psijupiter]

I don't think wizarding children would attend muggle primary school - too much of a chance they would perform accidental magic in front of muggles. Harry does all sorts of things at his school - flying up onto roof, turning people hair blue. Neville mentions that his first sign of magic was bouncing after being dropped out of a window. While the occasional event could be excused, I think if all the wizards attended muggle schools, people might notice!

Also, most wizards seem completely ignorant of anything to do with muggles, so I just can't picture any of them having attended a muggle primary school.

I imagine pure-blood, wealthy families like Draco having tutors, and other children being taught by their mother or other relatives. For a story I'm writing at the moment, I invented Miss Fifflepiff - Preparing for a Mgical Education. It's a series of books that teach children the basics, starting at age 5ish, and going through to starting Hogwarts. I'm still working out the details, but it's quite fun.

As the wizarding world is quite small, although I don't imagine any compulsory education, I do think that there would be some sort of commonly accepted course of work/series of books that most wizarding families followed to some degree, in order for their children to be ready for Hogwarts.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Well, I have always thought that wizarding childern just attended muggle primary school. I mean, if Muggle-born wizards attend it, why shouldn't Pure-bloods? It isn't legal for childern under 11 years of age to use magic, or own a wand, so there shouldnt be any problem with them attending Muggle school. Also, children need to learn basic maths skills, and like you said, to read and write, seen as Muggle school teaches this, I think Wizards would attend too.

This is not based on anything other than my thoughts really... But I hope I helped

Russia xxxxx

I doubt people like the Malfoys would even consider sending their precious Pureblood children to Muggle primary schools - they would be contaminated! Purebloods like these would probably hire tutors.

But let's talk about the Weasleys now. I would say the Weasley children never attended a Muggle primary school, judging by their ignorance of the way of the Muggle world. So I would argue that the Muggle school route isn't the most likely, otherwise you'll see a lot of wizarding world-born children who know how the Muggle world works, but we know this is not the case from the books.

Tutors and small schools would be the most likely, in my opinion. Concerning a small school, I think it might not even be a dedicated schoolhouse, but rather somebody's house - i.e. Xeno Lovegood teaching classes in his tower-house or something like that.

And my last thoughts about wizarding primary education... I think it's something Rowling just forgot about. From reading the Harry Potter books, I've always been under the impression that Hogwarts is the first school wizarding children attend, and then I always wonder how they all know how to read...

Tim the Enchanter

[OliveOil_Med]

I think there has been some sort of misunderstanding. I also agree that most wizarding children wouldn't attend Muggle primary school. Most of them seem far too sheltered in the books for that to happen. What I meant to say was what sort of primary education do you think wizarding children have.

And when I said a primary school, I was thinking more in terms of maybe seven wizarding children total, and a witch or wizard teacher, teaching basic lessons; the whole reading, writing arithmatic thing.

[psijupiter]

Sorry for the confusion: Russia_Snow suggested that wizard children would attend muggle primary school, I was replying to her. I should have quoted her.

Part of me thinks that wizarding families live too far apart for most of them to go to a wizarding primary school, though there might be one in London. I suppose they could all travel by floo to it, or there might be an equivalent to the Knight Bus to come and collect them? Or 'school portkeys' spread out across the country? Certainly the children who go to Hogwarts seem to settle in quickly, as if they are used to some sort of formal schooling.

[lupins_girl2006]

Before giving a straight answer in general, I think it's best o consider all aspects to wizarding children.

The first hing you have to think about is the prejudice of the family.

A muggleborn witch or wizard would most likely go to primary muggle school because they don't know they are magical yet. So unless the family is poor, they probably wouldn't get home-schooled or anything.

For a family that has a half-blood child, they would probably send them to Muggle primary school as well. Since there would most likely be a greater chance for the child to perform magic at a young age, the parents may teach the child to try to control their magic, depending on how the child is personality wise. If the child has a certain personality that would keep it from controling it's magic, then the parents may get a tutor for their child instead.

For Pure-blood children, it would depend on how they view muggles.

If they're like the Malfoys, then most likely they would get a tutor or have a parent home-school the child personally. Another idea is that the Pure-blood family may even get the House Elves to teach the children.

If they're like the Longbottoms, then they might have a tutor just because. It would really depend on the family's views. Maybe they would even send their child to Muggle primary school as a way to fit in with their neighbors.

Sorry if this isn't really what you're looking for, but it's what I thought when I read the first post.

~Allie

[Equinox Chick]

I think Hagrid mentions somewhere that wizarding children are taught at home by their parents. That probably happened in his case, and as his dad would also have worked (and his mum wasn't around), that would account for the fact that Hagrid doesn't read very well.

I rather like the idea of a small wizarding primary school. Not an official one, but perhaps a group of parents get together and all teach certain subjects (allows for flexibity). It could, perhaps, provide a small income for someone like Molly if she worked from home.

Carole

[OliveOil_Med]

Wizarding primary schools, I imagine, would function a lot like American preschools. They are often quite small and run out of the teachers home or just some small building that the teacher rents. I do like the idea of someone like Molly Weasley (though not Molly herself exactly) running a school out of their home to make a bit of extra money.

Wizarding populations are spread out, certainly, but since when has that ever been a problem for them before. I would think the school would have a connection to the Floo Network set up right in the classroom, so parents wouldn't even have to technically leave their own homes to take their children to school.

I'm just not so sure that any child with at least one wizarding parent would go to a Muggle primary school. There is too much potential for accidental magic or even just slips of the tongue; ways for things to go wrong. Beside, in the books, the students at Hogwarts seem to be too sheltered as a whole to have spent any time in a Muggle school.

[sorrow_of_severus]

I think I read somewhere that Jo said that (with the exception of Muggle-borns) magical children are homeschooled. I'm not sure where I read this - it was a while ago - and my memory may be mistaken anyways. However, I'll just assume I remember right, and you can make your own judgement.

I think tutoring for wealthy Pureblood children is a real possibility. I can totally picture this for a kid like Draco, who's had the best of everything.

As for kids that had both parents working, homeschooling still could work. I'm homeschooled, and at meetings of my homeschooling association, I've heard about other kids who are homeschooled with both parents working. These families usually use boxed curriculums that send all the lesson plans, textbooks, workbooks, etc. needed to homeschool a kid in all the basic subjects for a year. Some even have CD's or DVD's with real teacher instructions that the kids can watch on their computer or TV. With virtually no planning or instructional time, it is manageable for parents who work to still have homeschooled kids.

The wizarding world is in many ways locked in tradition. It may not have occurred to anyone to open a primary school for young witches and wizards simply because magical families have always made do without one for centuries and centuries.

However, if you are set on having a wizarding primary school, I think this idea would work better if it were in a Post-Hogwarts story. When I right, I generally take Jo's word to be law. However, as the book Inkspell pointed out, the world in a book doesn't stop after the last page. Things can change drastically after the ending the author planned, as character live and die. Perhaps after Jo finished the books, the wizarding world evolved and some enterprising witch or wizard had the idea to start a little primary school for their neighborhood.