September Newsletter

[Arianna Stonewater]

Welcome students and staff! A new school year has begun and we are as excited as ever!! For those who were away this summer, or who are new here, please look around! We are into our second year with HOL5, and it gets better with every update!!! The very talented staff make ! For more info on updates, visit the forums here.

Each month we will post the current House Point standings. Since the term has just started, we are all at 0! You can check out the current standings here on the HOL Main Page.

For those who don't know, HOLLERS is a fun club open to all the houses with something for everyone!! We have a points system called "HOOTS" which you can earn by completing activities! At the end of the month you can earn the aptly named "HOOT Award" by having the most HOOTS! Those who are particularly active in the HOLLERS Forums are eligible to win the "HOLLERS Award" which is given out with staff discretion; sometimes we give one out every month, sometimes a month or two is skipped!

Hollers News
With each new month, we will post 3 new puzzles in our Monthly Challenges and different prompts in the Creative Outlet sections of the HOLLERS Forum! The Creative Outlet is getting an update so lookout for the fun to come! We've also got a new section coming out for you writers who want a challenge, get ready!

House News
As a reminder, every common room must be signed up for separately from the main HOL Forums. Each house has their own points system, but you can earn House Points by submitting to their newspapers! You can join every common room, though you will only have full access to your own house's forums. There are still many fun things you can do when visiting others though:

Ravenclaw is starting off with an Eagles-only activity, but fear not Badgers, Lions, and Snakes! The Birds are accepting items for the first issue of their 2019/2020 house newspaper, The Alte Sententiam, from everyone soon!! (See previous issues here!) You can check here for info on their BINGO and Drabble Babble Challenges! Everyone is also invited to join their Debate Club!

Gryffindor has also just finished up a summer activity, and will be continuing their monthly "Gone Questing" activity with an outer space mission to retrieve The Treasure before it blows up and loses all of the data it's collected!! You can earn some gorgeous rubies (Gryffindor Points System) Peeve's Place is always open for some fun games!

Hufflepuff's Department of Hufflepuff Games and Sports is up and running with some hard challenges and the chance to win some shiny diamonds (the Hufflepuff House points system)! If you stop by The Fireplace there are some cool games you can play like this HP Character Game or this Quidditch Team Game.

Slytherin has hit the ground running with their read-a-long tasks and trivia; they've just started Chapter 1 of Book 6: "The Other Minister" and it's a great way to earn scales (Slytherin's house points system.) Everyone is welcome to wander the dungeons, so why not stop by the Puzzle Exchange or our Arcade Club? Don't forget to turn in your submissions for the next Serpentimes, due October 15! The theme is "Discovery." (See previous issues here)


News From Around HOL

All are invited to join in with HOL's Welcome Month forum! This month-long activity will take you through the Welcome Booths of the Houses as well as Clubs and Departments of HOL! There are also plenty of tasks for you to participate in with the chance to earn House Points!! Start the year off right and head down now!

If you haven't seen already, Class Sign-ups are now open! You can enlist in up to 5 classes per term (not including OWLs.) Make sure you look at the syllabus and homeworks to ensure you can meet all of the requirements to pass the class before you sign up!

Quidditch
The Summer Quidditch League isn't quite over as the final Seeking match hasn't taken place yet! All are invited to come watch the exciting conclusion to an awesome summer of broom games (date & time TBD.) They will soon be announcing the 2019-2020 match schedule, but in the meantime check with your house teams/quidditch captains! They may be looking for new players, and every team could always use people for practice matches! If you can't commit to being on the team, you can always join us for one of the pick-up matches!

Book Club
The Book Club is starting off the year strong! Their super-fun Flash Fiction is back for all you super short story writers! September's Book Trivia Game is focused on the secondary and tertiary characters of books! As always, you can still read (and write!) book reviews and join discussions in the various other sections of the Book Club; lots of chances to earn beans and add shiny awards to your trophy shelves!!

The Library Department
The revamped Library Department has two new projects available for you to earn house points, as well as two finished projects with voting open until Sept. 14!

The Art Department
The Art Department doesn't have any new projects yet, but you can still vote for their finished "Blockbuster Summer" project until Sept. 14!