Wizarding Schools

A **wizarding school** (also called a **magical school**) was an educational institution which provides magical instruction to young witches and wizards.

There were eleven long-established and prestigious wizarding schools throughout the world, all of which were registered with the International Confederation of Wizards. Smaller and less well-regulated institutions were rarely registered with the appropriate Ministry and are difficult to keep track of.

However, most countries in the world did not have their own wizarding school. Magical children in these countries were typically homeschooled or educated via correspondence courses.

## School Locations

The exact locations of most wizarding schools were kept secret, both to prevent the schools from being discovered by Muggles and to protect them from the harmful effects of war or interference by domestic or foreign governments. Generally, magical schools were situated in landlocked, mountainous areas, which were difficult to access without magic and easier to defend in case of attack. There were, however, exceptions, such as Mahoutokoro School of Magic located on the island of Minami Iwo Jima, Castelobruxo in the Amazon Rainforest and Koldovstoretz School of Magic in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.

## Range and Regulation

The vast majority of countries in the world did not have their own wizarding school. Wizards and witches in these countries generally chose to homeschool their children instead. Correspondence courses were also sometimes used as a cost-effective method of providing magical instruction to young witches and wizards in countries with very small or isolated wizarding populations.

Wizarding schools generally admitted students from whatever country in which they were based, but some served multiple nations or a broad geographical region, or at least were open to accepting international students on a selective basis. Castelobruxo, Ilvermorny and Uagadou accepted students from all over their respective continents, whereas Hogwarts only accepted students from the United Kingdom.

The school with the smallest number of students was Mahoutokoro, and the school with the most students was Uagadou.

Some schools also enforced special restrictions with regard to the admission of students. The Durmstrang Institute, for example, did not accept Muggle-born witches and wizards.

The Educational Office of the International Confederation of Wizards was responsible for cataloguing and overseeing wizarding schools around the world, namely the eleven oldest, most respected ones. Smaller wizarding schools existed, but these were often short-lived and poorly-regulated, as most were not registered with the respective Ministry of Magic of the country in which they operated. The quality of magical education on offer at these smaller, unregistered institutions was thus questionable. Africa was known to have been home to a number of smaller wizarding schools in addition to Uagadou. The book *An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe* covered publicly available information on various wizarding schools in Europe.

## Interaction Between Schools

Every five years, a competition known as the Triwizard Tournament was held between the three major European wizarding schools: Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts. One champion was selected to represent each school (with the exception of the 1994 Triwizard Tournament, when Hogwarts ended up with two champions) to compete in an array of deadly challenges. The winning school received the Triwizard Cup.

The Wizarding Schools Potions Championship was held in seven-year intervals between students of Hogwarts, Koldovstoretz, Mahoutokoro and Uagadou. The winning school received a golden cauldron.

Castelobruxo in Brazil offered student exchange programmes to pupils at wizarding schools in Europe. There was apparently also an international pen-friend programme in place for students of Castelobruxo and Hogwarts. Bill Weasley wanted to take an exchange trip to Castelobruxo, but had to back out because his family could not afford the expense, leading his upset Castelobruxo pen-friend to send him a cursed hat. Beauxbatons Academy of Magic also offered student exchange programme.

## Gallery

Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, (range: Western Europe)Château de Beauxbatons in the Pyrenees, FranceCasteloruxo (range: all over South America)Têmpora de Casteloruxo in the Amazon Rainforest, BrazilDurmstrang Institute, (range: Eastern and Northern Europe)Borg av Durmstrang in Scandinavia somewhereHogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, (range: United Kingdom)Hogwarts Castle in the Scottish Highlands, Scotland, Great BritainIlvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, (range: North America)Illvermorny Castle on Mount Greylock, Massachusetts, United States of AmericaKoldovstoretz School of Magic, (range: Russia)Zamok iz Koldovstoretz in the Kremlin, Moscow, RussiaMahoutokoro Institute of Magical Education, (range: Japan)No Shiro Mahoutokoro in Minami Iwo Jima, [[Japan]Uagadou School of Magic (range: all over Africa)Uagadou Castle in the Mountains of the Moon, Uganda