I was attending a boarding school in the 1990s as an 'external' student (which means I lived at home and commuted in each day). They started their first period at 7:15 am, because that allowed everyone to go to mess hall at the same time during dinner.
Which meant that to catch the bus, I needed to rise at 5am, showered and dressed half-dead, got into the bus at 5:45am, arrived around 6:45am, and stood another half-hour freezing. My brother, who attended another school, started at 8am, which afforded him 80 more minutes of sleep...
For normal classes which I had several periods during the week, one being in the early-morning spot did not make much of a difference. Then, one year, I got my favourite subject - physics - scheduled for monday morning, 7:15am, and thursday afternoon at 4:30pm.
I failed that class - in a subject in which I used to be a straight A student.
The policy had other effects, too. Eventually, I went on autocontrol, getting in on bank holidays (because at 5:00, I would wake automatically, but still was too brain-fogged to realise it was not a working day) on more than one occassion.
All that research about teenage circadian cycles came later - and it had absolutely no effect. My nephew is in that very school today (and thanks to my suggestion, because if you take the early rising aspect out, those were the best days of my school life). They still start at 7:15am.
I was attending a boarding school in the 1990s as an 'external' student (which means I lived at home and commuted in each day). They started their first period at 7:15 am, because that allowed everyone to go to mess hall at the same time during dinner.
Which meant that to catch the bus, I needed to rise at 5am, showered and dressed half-dead, got into the bus at 5:45am, arrived around 6:45am, and stood another half-hour freezing. My brother, who attended another school, started at 8am, which afforded him 80 more minutes of sleep...
For normal classes which I had several periods during the week, one being in the early-morning spot did not make much of a difference. Then, one year, I got my favourite subject - physics - scheduled for monday morning, 7:15am, and thursday afternoon at 4:30pm.
I failed that class - in a subject in which I used to be a straight A student.
The policy had other effects, too. Eventually, I went on autocontrol, getting in on bank holidays (because at 5:00, I would wake automatically, but still was too brain-fogged to realise it was not a working day) on more than one occassion.
All that research about teenage circadian cycles came later - and it had absolutely no effect. My nephew is in that very school today (and thanks to my suggestion, because if you take the early rising aspect out, those were the best days of my school life). They still start at 7:15am.