Persuasive writing

Every weekday morning, in kitchens across the country, the same scene unfolds. An alarm screams. A teenager groans. A parent calls up the stairs for the third time. We have come to treat this as a joke, a stage that young people simply grow out of. It is not a joke. It is biology, and it is time our schools took notice. Sleep researchers have long observed that during adolescence the body clock shifts later. Teenagers tend to feel sleepy later at night and need to sleep later in the morning. Asking a fifteen-year-old to be alert in a classroom at half past eight is, for many, like asking an adult to sit an exam at half past five in the morning. Think about what this means. Students who are short of sleep find it harder to concentrate, to remember what they have learned and to manage their moods. Are we really surprised, then, when first class on a Monday morning feels like wading through mud? Some will say that a later start is impossible: buses, sports training and parents' work would all be thrown into chaos. These are real concerns, but they are problems of organisation, not reasons to ignore young people's health. Timetables were invented by people. People can change them. I am not asking for an hour of lie-in for the sake of comfort. I am asking that we design the school day around the students it exists to serve. Start school later, and we may find that the sleepiest generation becomes the sharpest.