Just last week the UK nationals date was changed from 3-4 March (Thurs+Fri) to 22-23 April (Fri+Sat). This was frustrating in itself as due to it being moved to a Saturday, Jewish members of the team would not be able to attend… However what is even more infuriating is that they did not check the date against large events such as the Jewish festival of Passover. 22-23 April are on the last 2 days of Passover so even relatively unreligious people would not be able to go.
On top of this for many UK schools the week beginning 18 April is A-Level mock exam week which means that it is very unlikely that any Y12 team members will be able to go…
I understand that competitions sometimes have to be held on Saturdays as that is most convenient for the majority of people… But not checking the new competition date against huge events like Passover and mock exam week seems like a huge oversight…
I know that most likely nothing can be done to change the date at this point but it just seems a shame as the reason that the date was changed in the first place was to allow more regional competitions to take place so more people could have the chance to qualify and get to nationals, but in reality it seems less people will be actually able to go to Nationals.
