Dear Parents/Carers,

As we approach the end of the second week of the holy month of Ramadan, I wanted to provide you with advance notice of our plans as a school for the celebration of Eid ul Fitr which is forecast for either Monday 31st March or Tuesday 1st April. The involvement of large numbers of staff and students in observing this important day means that there will be an impact on the school’s normal operations.

The nuances of the lunar calendar means planning with absolute certainty for Eid is very challenging, and we will only have confirmation of the date of Eid ul Fitr from about 7pm on the evening of Sunday 30th March.  Individual mosques will declare when Eid is to be observed and this will not be declared until the first sighting of the moon. 

We are therefore basing our planning and communication with you on the most likely outcome which is currently that the majority of staff and students will be taking their official day of religious observance on Monday 31st March. As a reference point we have over 30 staff, which is roughly equivalent to a quarter of our workforce, who will be absent from school as a result of religious observance.

Authorised absence for students observing Eid ul Fitr

As in previous years we are following the Department for Education guidelines around authorising absence for students who will be celebrating Eid ul Fitr with their family. This is that we will authorise absence for one day of religious observance, and parents/carers must still contact the Attendance team in the morning to confirm their absence and the reason for this. We wish all of our students and families who will be celebrating a wonderful time together on this special day. Any absence beyond the first day cannot be authorised for religious observance.

How will staff and student absence impact normal operations for school?

As was the case last year, with such a large number of staff unavailable on the same day we will be looking at a combination of combining classes and also closing the school to two year groups with remote learning for those not taking religious observance on the day.

Based on the predicted date of Eid ul Fitr school will be closed to all students in Years 9 and 10 on Monday 31st March, with all other year groups expected to attend as normal.  Learning will move to Google Classrooms for the day for students in Years 9 and 10 and they will be expected to access lesson material from home.  

If, however, we have confirmation on Sunday 30th March that Eid will fall for the majority of staff and students on Tuesday 1st April, we will operate as normal on Monday 31st March and the above arrangements with a closure to Year 9 and 10 students will take place on Tuesday 1st April instead.

Why do we need to have year group closures during Eid?

We understand that the need to close the school to the two year groups will cause inconvenience to families and we apologise in advance for this, but I want to take the opportunity to explain our thinking to you:

• The safe supervision of students and the educational quality of lessons becomes a real concern at this level of staff absence. Some of our cover supervisors have also declared they will be absent. Supply agencies are unable to fill gaps at this volume meaning that staffing the full timetable becomes impossible.

• At this stage of the year with just over a month until the start of the external GCSE and A Level examinations we are prioritising the studies of Year 11 and 13 students and looking to timetable subject specialist teachers to cover lessons where colleagues are absent observing Eid.

• We have the ability to learn remotely because of the way we have invested in every student having a school chromebook over recent years.

In summary, the evening of Sunday 30th March is crucial in terms of communication:

• We will know by 7pm how the school will be impacted based on the sighting of the moon.

• All Year 9 and Year 10 students and parents/carers should check the website on the evening of Sunday 30th March in order to establish if school is open to them the following day. We will post a pop-up message to confirm arrangements as soon as we have definitive news. 

• We will also communicate this announcement to parents via Arbor. 

We appreciate that this will mean additional childcare arrangements if you have a child in Year 9 or Year 10, as well as the need to watch out for messages on a Sunday evening, but I want to ensure you have as much notice as possible of the plans.

Thank you for your continued support and may I wish Ramadan Mubarak to all of our families who are observing the holy month.

Yours faithfully,

Dave Knox
Principal