I vaguely remember Harry standing over his broom and shouting "UP!" during a flying lesson with Madame Hooch in his first year at Hogwarts. We all know it... Neville displayed one of his first of MANY clumsy incidents with a broom.
Now, is that only for First Years, or is that a class that's like... extra credit type of thing? Or is it an actual class?

I'm preeetty sure if it was a real class Harry and Ron would ditch Divination for it, but I'm just curious.

I always assumed that it was just a special class for first years. Although I have often wondered why it seems to be mandatory; don't most kids who grow up in the wizarding world learn to fly at home? Or is it like Apparating? I wonder if there's an age limit before you can start learning to fly. Good question.

I guess it's one of those things they think every wizard needs to know. I mean, it is a big thing in the wizarding world even though there are easier ways to travel. I don't think it goes any further than first year because there is only so much you can learn about flying and most people only need to know the basics so they can fly to different places. If anybody wanted to play quidditch they are probably allowed to use the quidditch pitch if they aren't in the house teams, like Ron did with Harry when he got his first broom. I doubt many people really want to do stuff like that much so the pitch would be free for them to use a lot of the time.

Perhaps there are more classes than are mentioned in the books. I've always had some trouble coming up with a timetable in which the students have the full timetable as mentioned in the books, which means several-times-per-week classes in key subjects. Given that there are seven years and four Houses, If classes are not shared by all Houses of a particular year, you'll find that the teachers would need Time-Turners to be able to teach everybody!

So there might be other lessons that are not specifically mentioned. The wizarding equivalent to Phys.Ed. for instance. Don't wizards and witches need to be fit? Don't you have to have a grounding before you can play Quidditch?

The flying lessons may be a branch of the sports lessons that all students of all years will have. A first-year subject, because many eleven year olds, and certainly the Muggle-born ones, won't ever have flown on a broom before.

I wondered about that for a fair amount of time during the past several weeks, because I just read book1 and when I reached the flying lesson part, I wondered, why don't they take flying lessons anymore?, They are really important for some of them like Neville, and as xfireflyx said, I think Harry and Ron and maybe even Hermione would ditch Divination for that, but Hermione doesn't take Divination anymore (Lucky she is.)
But, I think that it won't be very good for Hermione, because if they took flying lessons, they were going to take owl tests on them, right? And I don't think Hermione would've managed to get more than an A in anyway, and that would surely make her cry.
On the whole, I think flying lessons are just for first years.

It's an intersting question. I had always presumed that it was just for First-Years to give them some basics in flying - and then if they were interested or showed great skill than they could join the Quidditch teams.

But I guess Hogwarts does provide flying lessons - after all, Madamn Hooch has got to do something when the Quidditch isn't on.

Yah I think it just the basics for Wizards, because if they ever wanted to get interested in Quidditch or wanted to try flying I supposed that was their bit to get to look at it first hand view. Off Topic here but wasnt that funny in the movie when Ron got smoked in the face with the broom, ahah!

I'm going to move this thread to the general books discussion, as I think it fits better there than in the lounge.

As far as the flying lesson, I'd always assumed it was solely a first year class to introduce wizards and witches to broom riding. Like Bumblebee said, some of them were coming never having been exposed to a broom before, and some of them came from houses were travel was made predominantly on a broom.

I also agree that there are some classes that we aren't told about. Perhaps a phys-ed equivalent, or something other than Arithmancy!

hmm.. they must have some other lessons, lets think, the ones we know of are;
(core) DADA, charms, transfiguration, potions, divintation, history of magic, care of magical creatures
(extra) ancient runes, arithmacy - there must be more- quiditch/flying ?

so there are about seven core subjects. if each is an hour long and they had each twice a week that would be fourteen lessons, which isn't even three a day. if they had three of each a week, that would be twenty-one lessons, about four a day. that still doesn't seem enough, i think in one of the books harry reads out part of his timetable and its at least five a day.

maybe Jo just hasn't done these details. she has created the world but she can't do every tiny bit of it. remember there are millions of us to find slight flaws and only one of her.
also i know this is off subject but i'm having the same problem with some of the dates, maybe this is the same sort of thing.

what was the question again? oh yea.. i agree that there is only so much quiditch you can learn. the rest has to be practiced in game and training as a team. however, if quiditch were part of another subject, eg: a certain sport taught within a subject - like football taught as part of the pe course- then it would make more sense to carry on throughout the years.

although i cant see some stuudents playing games like footbal or basketball- namely malfoy, quiditch is much more.. elegant

In terms of the schiduling of classes, you have to understand that they might have classes once every day, twice a week, or three times a week depending on the class. Unlike in the US where in most schools students have the same classes every day, the European system is run a little differently. Now I'm not sure about England, but this is what I imagine a course schedule would look like for the kids:
Monday DADA, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, History
Tuesday Potions, Care of magical creatures, herbology, history, ancient runes?
Wednesday DADA, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, History
Thursday Potions, Care of magical creatures, herbology, history, ancient runes?
Friday DADA, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, History, something else that meets once a week?
Essentially every day would be a bit different than the previous.

I'm making this assumption based on the idea that their class schedules are more like our class schedules we have in College, and Uni here in the states.

When I was at DePaul I had one or two classes that met every day, three or four that met three times a week, and two or three that met twice a week, with the occasional class that met once a week. It all depended on the class, and what year you were.

spinjam, that is about right. i'm forteen so in year ten, i don't know what that is in america, but i have science six times a week (only because im doing triple science, otherwise it's four) maths three times, english three times (lan and lit are mixed up), and things i chose like history, art, french etc two or three times.
i guess this could be the same but i just didn't think the y had enough subjects at hogwarts. they do if you take extra,. like hermionie but harry and ron didn't ever seem to take anything but the things they had to. some people don't even take transfiguration or potions for newt level, so they'd have even less. maybee they just have loads of free periods when they get to that age.
annyway thats a bit off the quiditch thing but never mind.

Interesting!! I think it is a regular lesson for first years. "Welcome to your first flying lesson" if it wasn't a regular lesson Madam Hooch would have said "Welcome to your only flying lesson." Another thing Dumbledore wouldn't employ Madam Hooch to just referee Quidditch! She must teach flying lessons often.

We have to remember that 5th, 6th and 7th years have quite alot of free periods to "revise."

Hi,

If the subjects are devided between "you have to have these subjects" and "you can choose these subjects", it'd be like this, in my opinion. However, it can change with the year you're in, based on what career you want to do and what your strong points are:
core: DADA, charms, transfiguration, potions, divintation, history of magic, herbology
extra: ancient runes, arithmacy, muggle studies, quiditch/flying, care of magical creatures

About flying lessons:
I always thought that they had those lessons all year long, but that J.K.Rowling never actually wrote every lesson. You don't see every charms and every potions lesson in the books, so...

I think these are the reasons why flying lessons are in first year:
1. To introduce a reliable, magical transportation ability to students (mainly to muggle borns and those who never knew there actually is magic) and to learn the students.
2. To learn the students the techniques for quidditch, in case they want to join a team in second year (if they would learn to fly in second year, they wouldn't be able to join the team because they might not be able to fly yet, but only want to).
3. To have some difference in classes: do you think 11 and 12 year olds sit still for hours and hours concentrating on their homework? I couldn't, when I was of that age... I had too much energy for it. it's a good way to have a nice distraction from studying.

Marieke

I always thought it was just like a one time thing, just to learn the ropes, I also got the impression it was on a weekend or something, not actual classtime. The school probably just wanted to introduce the subject and if someone wanted more lessons they figured they would just get help from someone who knew how

I guess,it was only an introduction about how to fly.I mean it is really important in the wizarding world,right?.And you can see that how bad Hermione is when it comes to flying!! .Those classes where just to practice or something like that.Like we are having games period(physical education) once in a week(We have it like that)

Yeah i always thought it was just an intorduction for first years...
Because a competent Quidditch player wouldn't need thosse lessons.
As for thosse who aren't good but want to pratice..
I think they pratice on the Quiidtch Pirch when it's available.