School hogs Potter extras' money

Schoolchildren working as extras on the new Harry Potter film have been forced to give the money they made to their school, it emerged today.

Fourteen children from Lochaber high school in the Scottish Highlands were told by headmaster Donald Campbell that work they did on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban during school hours counted as work experience and that the money should go to a school fund.

Warner Bros accordingly made a donation of £1,370 to the school. The children were, however, paid for working on the shoot over weekends.

Children from nearby Kinlochleven high school were allowed to keep their earnings, which the Sun puts at £35 a day.

A spokesman for the Highland council, the local authority, said that the policy at Lochaber had been decided upon during work on the second Harry Potter film and added that the council was working on a common policy for future shoots.

In a reverse to the situation in the rest of the country, Harry Potter is an important net contributor to some children's piggy banks in the Highlands, with substantial chunks of all three films shot in the area and extras often recruited locally.