Harry Potter world casts a spell over St. Bonaventure's

It was a day full of magic and mystery at a St. John's school on Friday, as students became the characters in Harry Potter complete with wands and owls.

St. Bonaventure's College transformed into itself the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in its14th annual Harry Potter Day.

Grade 3 teacher Jalin Rowsell said she started organizing the event in 1999after one of her students brought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to be read to the class, and it's been a tradition ever since.

"They [the students] love it. I taught most of the Grade 11 prefects, who come back to help me every year, and my Grade 3 students think it's fantastic that the older students act as prefects just like in the Harry Potter books, so they're very excited," she said.

Students show up to school and get an invitation to depart from Platform 9 and 3/4 to start their day.

Rowsell said while students and staff get to dress up as a character and have all sorts of fun, there's still a strong element of learning.

"It's part of my language curriculum, it's a novel study. It's a cross-curricular, though it involved math and social studies, as well as science, so we link it to all those curriculum outcomes," said Rowsell.

The magical day takes place at the school on the second Friday of every June.