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The Salem Institute for Young Witches is a magical boarding school located in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem Institute is a large school campus with lots of beautiful scenery and takes in young witches primarily from anywhere in America.
History[]
Early History[]
Salem Institute for Young Witches was founded during the Salem Witch Trials in February 18, 1692; 702 years after Hogwarts and 65 years after Ilvermorny. The schools founded was by an unknown woman.
School Year[]
The school term officially starts on September 1st, like Hogwarts. Student usually reach Salem Institute by train if in Massachusetts or portkey for others states, the portkey then takes the students to the Salem railroad Station, the train then leaves at 10 am sharp. The train then takes the students to an unknown station near the school. Then the students who are in first to fourth year are boated across the lake and fifth through seventh years take carriages or walk to the school.
Once there, the students are taken to the Great hall, where the headmistress says a few words before the Welcoming Feast. After the feast, the first years are sorted into the four gigantic dorms. For the rest of the day they get to bond with their dorm mates and get comfortable with the new surroundings. Schedules are handed out at breakfast the next day by the head prefects. At the ending of September and beginning of October, Quidditch try-outs are held and flying lessons begin.
Uniforms[]
Salem has uniforms like most wizarding schools. But unlike the other schools, Salem gives the girls a choice of 5 different styles of the same uniform.
Subjects[]
Core Subjects[]
Defence Against the Dark Arts[]
Defence Against the Dark Arts (sometimes written as DADA) is a subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. In this class students learn how to magically defend themselves against Dark Creatures, the Dark Arts, and other dark charms. Offensive magic is also taught in this class, such as how to duel, which requires the use of both offensive and defensive magic.
Required Equipment: Wand, Books, Parchment, and Quill
Charms[]
Charms is a core class and subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. Unsurprisingly, it specializes in the teaching of charms.
Required Equipment: Wand, Books, Parchment, and Quill
Transfiguration[]
Transfiguration is a core class and subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. It teaches the art of changing the form and appearance of an object or a person. This type of magic is commonly referred to as "Transfiguration" and is considered both complex and dangerous.
Required Equipment: Wand, Books, Parchment, and Quill
Potions[]
Potions is a core class and subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. In this class, students learn the correct way to brew potions. They follow specific recipes and use various magical ingredients to create the potions, starting with simple ones and moving to more advanced ones as they progress in knowledge. A standard potions kit includes plant ingredients such as Belladonna and supplies such as glass phials and weighing scales.
Required Equipment: Wand, Books, Parchment, Quill, Cauldron, Brass Scales, Phials, and Various Ingredients
Astronomy[]
Astronomy is a core class and subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. Astronomy is a branch of magic that studies stars and the movement of planets. It is a subject where the use of practical magic during lessons was not necessary.
Required Equipment: Telescope, Star Chart, Books, Parchment, and Quill
Herbology[]
Herbology is the study of magical and mundane plants and fungi, making it the wizarding equivalent to botany. Herbology is a core class and subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches in which students learn to care for and utilise plants, learn about their magical properties and what they are used for. Many plants provide ingredients for potions and medicine, while others have magical effects of their own right.
Required Equipment:Dragon-Hide Gloves, Earmuffs,Dragon Dung Compost, Mooncalf Dung, Wand, Books, Parchment, and Quill
History of Magic[]
History of Magic is a core class and subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. This class is a study of magical history. This is one of the subjects where the use of magic practically isn't necessary. History of Magic is taught from the first year to the fifth, with the option of N.E.W.T. courses in sixth and seventh year.
Required Equipment: Books, Parchment, and Quill
Flying (First Years Only)[]
Flying is a subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. It is taught to first-years only.The subject teaches students how to fly broomsticks.
Required Equipment: Broomstick
Electives (Third Year and Up)[]
Third Year On:
Arithmacy[]
Arithmancy is an elective subject offered from the third year on at Salem Institute for Young Witches.
Required Equipment: Books, Parchment, and Quill
Ancient Runes[]
Ancient Runes is an elective course at Salem Institute for Young Witches, that can be taken by students third year and above.
Required Equipment: Books, Parchment, and Quill
No-Mag Studies[]
No-Mag Studies is an elective class and part of the non-magical studies curriculum at Salem Institute for Young Witches. It is exactly what the name implies — the study of the daily lives of No-Mags and how they cope with electricity, technology and science, and not magic.
Required Equipment: Books, Parchment, and Quill
Care of Magical Creatures[]
Care of Magical Creatures is an elective course at Salem Institute for Young Witches that can be chosen by students in their third year. In the class, students learn about a wide range of magical creatures, from flobberworms to fire crabs, and even unicorns and thestrals. Students are taught about feeding, maintaining, breeding, and proper treatment of these creatures.
Required Equipment: Wand, Books, Parchment, and Quill
Divination[]
Divination is an elective course taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. It teaches methods of divining the future, or gathering insights into future events, through various rituals and tools. The magic taught in this class, as well as the ability to say prophetic things is a branch of magic referred to as "Divination."
Required Equipment: Books, Parchment, Quill, Crystal Balls, Teacups and Tea Leaves, Burning Materials
Sixth and Seventh Years (With Sufficient Demand):
Advanced Arithmancy Studies[]
Advanced Arithmancy Studies is presumably Arithmancy for students with particular skill at the subject. It is taught in a classroom at Salem Institute for Young Witches.
Required Equipment: Books
Alchemy[]
Alchemy is an elective course taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. The course is open to sixth and seventh-years if there are enough students interested in taking the subject. The ancient science of Alchemy focuses on the study of nature's four basic elements (fire, earth, air, and water), as well as the transmutation of substances (such as base metals into gold).
Required Equipment: Wand
Ancient Studies[]
Ancient Studies is an extra-curricular class taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. The subject presumably focuses on ancient magic, such as the ancient Egyptians' spell.
Apparition[]
Apparition is an optional twelve-week course offered at Salem Institute for Young Witches for learning how to Apparate, with the intention of receiving a licence from the age of seventeen.
Required Equipment: Wand
Extra Curricular Subjects[]
Art[]
Art is an extra-curricular subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. The class is accessible only to third year students and above. As there is also a No-Mag Art class, it can be presumed that this class covers art of the Wizarding world.
Ghoul Studies[]
Ghoul Studies is a class taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. Despite it being a class in its own right, it is not a core nor elective subject, so it must be extra-curricular or optional. The subject presumably focuses on ghouls, ghosts, and poltergeists.
Magical Theory[]
Magical Theory is a subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches, taken at least in the first year. It covers magic from a purely theoretical standpoint, including the topic of how spells work, according to the ad for the book Magical Theory.
Required Equipment: Books
No-Mag Art[]
No-Mag Art is part of Non-Magic Studies at Salem Institute for Young Witches. Students probably study and experiment with No-Mag artifacts, paintings etc.
No-Mag Music[]
No-Mag Music is part of Non-Magic Studies at Salem Institute for Young Witches. The class is accessible only to third year students and above.
Music[]
Music is an extra-curricular subject taught at Salem Institute for Young Witches. The class is accessible only to third year students and above. The subject is taken in the Music Classroom.
Xylomancy[]
Xylomancy was an "often overlooked" type of divination that relied upon twigs. The book Xylomancy by Selina Sapworthy covered it, and at least once, a class in the art was taught in the North Tower at Hogwarts. Salem Institute for Young Witches offers an extracurricular class in Xylomancy.
Grading System[]
Grading on routine homework seems to be along the same lines as that for No-Mag students. Salem students also have more difficult exams as they progress higher in the system. O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) are a set of standardized tests for fifth year students, which determine what courses a student may continue to study in their final years at Salem. They are the wizarding equivalent of No-Mag O-levels.
N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) are optional levels of education for exceptional students, much like A-levels for No-Mag students. To progress to N.E.W.T.-level, students must receive certain high marks on O.W.L. exams, otherwise the student would not be able to cope with the increasingly difficult subject matter. N.E.W.T. tests occur at the end of the seventh year and cannot be retaken.
Ordinary Wizarding Level Grading System:
- O - Outstanding (Pass, always continue to N.E.W.T.)
- E - Exceeds Expectations (Pass, usually continues to N.E.W.T.)
- A - Acceptable (Pass, rarely continues to N.E.W.T)
- P - Poor (Fail, may repeat subject)
- D - Dreadful (Fail, may not receive O.W.L. credit)
- T - Troll (Fail, with distinction. More than one T may mean refusal into other N.E.W.T.s)
Examinations[]
All students at Salem are required to complete a set of examinations to get into the next year of schooling. There is one exam for each subject. In fifth year instead of end of the year exams, students set their O.W.L. (Ordinary Wizarding Levels), the score they achieve on these is what allows them to progress to N.E.W.T.-level. In order to progress to N.E.W.T., a student most score either an 'Outstanding' or an 'Exceeds Expectations' on their O.W.L.
Salem Daily Routine[]
Holidays[]
Students may go home for certain holidays such as Christmas and Easter. The students who choose to remain are treated to a feast along with some of the faculty.
When Christmas holidays end, classes begin again. The Easter holidays are not as enjoyable as the Christmas ones, as students are overloaded with homework in preparation for their exams, which are taken at the end of the year. Students are not allowed to use magic over the summer holidays until they turn seventeen, magic is also banned in corridors.