Teacher ruins Deathly Hallows for hundreds of students
Oh, I would be so mad if my kid’s teacher did this!
A primary school head ruined the new Harry Potter book for hundreds of young pupils by reading out the final page on the last day of term.
More than 400 children were in assembly when Carolyn Banfield gave away the ending to Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows at St John’s Church of England school in Midsomer Norton, Somerset.
Tags: Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsSome of the young pupils were so desperate not to hear what happened to their favourite characters that they quickly put their hands over their ears in an effort to avoid hearing the climax to the final book in the series.
Many of the children at St John’s had not yet bought the book, which was released 10 days ago.
One 11-year-old said: “I put my hands over my ears and squeezed my eyes closed because I didn’t want to know about it.”
The school defended itself, claiming that the extract chosen would not have given away the book’s plot.
A spokesman for St John’s said: “The school held an assembly on the last day of term to say goodbye to the children and staff who were leaving.
“At this assembly a very small passage from the new Harry Potter book was read aloud.
“The passage was carefully chosen to reflect the theme of saying goodbye.
“The school felt that this reading would not spoil the children’s enjoyment of the book and its plot.
“Many of the children and staff at the school are fans of the Harry Potter series, and we used the text as a way of illustrating how uncertainty can sometimes accompany new beginnings.” But the reading was condemned by the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations.
Spokesman Margaret Morrissey said: “It beggars belief as to how someone could even consider doing something like this. It spoilt the book for a number of children.
“The good thing about Harry Potter is that it has encouraged a lot of children to pick up books and read.
“Whatever the motive there wasn’t sufficient thinking behind this.
“It is something that the children at the school would have spent the majority of the holiday reading rather that saying they were bored.
“It is very hard to understand why anyone would do that, most of all a teacher in a primary school.”
Thousands of people around the world queued for hours to get their hands on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the latest and last book in the multi-million selling series.
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