Monkseaton has been working with Professor Russell Foster at Oxford University over the past few years to see if school could improve the health and learning of teenagers through changing the timing of the school's lessons. This is because teenagers have hormonal changes that make them sleep in later and go to sleep later than adults or young children.  This is caused by the human 'body clock'- our Circadian Rhythms- changing in teenage years to make the average teenager wake up 2 hours later and go to sleep 2 hours later.  So if they are forced to wake up earlier every weekday, then they become sleep deprived. 

The BBC has taken up the issue in their flagship science progamme, Horizon.  This features students from Monkseaton, as well as experiments carried out on site (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7932108.stm).  The general case for schools around the world to adjust the timing of their days to fit in with teenage has been well established by scientists around the world who point to the damage to young people's health, mental health, and learning.