Dear SIM Volunteers,
 

Salaamun Alaykum
 
Late last year the Madressa began the process of assessing options for alternative sites which could potentially host the entire Madressa on a single site (as was the case when the entire Madressa was at our centre in Stanmore, before being forced to seek out Kenmore Park Infant and Nursery School (KPINS) due to pressures on numbers).
 
There are 4 primary reasons behind this push for an alternative site:

1. Allow the Madressa to increase our overall student capacity to eliminate an existing waiting list of over 100 students and plan for the continued growth of our community over the next decade.
2. Enhance the scope and breadth of what we can offer to our students by having more resources at our disposal, as well as target an offering for our young people aged between 17-22 as well as provide an offering for adults and parents.
3. To ensure that the whole Madressa can benefit from a fit for purpose learning environment in the way our students at KPINS have benefited from over the past 5 years.
4. To have our staff on one site so we can maximise our current resources and reduce duplication of support infrastructure.

It is in this context that we are pleased to inform you that, with the full support and blessing of the Executive Committee of the KSIMC of London, we have now provisionally agreed to rent Northwood High School (NWHS - http://www.northwood-school.org.uk/), with the whole Madressa beginning the next academic year on that site starting January 2017. This is a newly built campus at a cost of £36m and will enable us to realise the above objectives. A video walkthrough of the facility can also be viewed at https://youtu.be/wsqfWIxBx7U
 

​The agreement to let the site has only come about at the end of last week and there isn’t much time to plan and undertake a transition from Stanmore and KPINS to NWHS before the start of our new academic year. Nevertheless, the Madressa team will continue to work hard over the holiday period to ensure we are ready to open for the INSET DAY on 8 January 2017.
 

​It goes without saying, that YOUR SUPPORT will be crucial in ensuring we have a successful transition to NWHS, and therefore I urge you all to keep on the look out for information about logistics and operations as they are sent. There will have to be changes to how we operate to ensure we comply with requirements from the school and also so we can work efficiently and safely now that we are operating on a site where all 850 students will be present.

 

We are confident that we can meet any challenges, and I am certain once you have seen the site and its facilities in January we will be energised by the opportunities available to us to grow in our delivery and experiences on offer to our students.

 

I look forward to welcoming you all at our new Madressa home in January 2017 and we will be hosting inset day at the new site on 8 January 2017, IA.

 

With duas,