Morning and School

It is imperative that students and teachers arrive at school before 8am on weekdays. But is that really the best time for school to start? As someone who needs to wake up at 6 to get to school on time, I am intrigued by what our community thought of moving our school’s daily schedule back by half an hour. What if school starts at later times such as from 8:30 to 3:30? I sent out a survey asking both students and teachers for their positions on the topic, and the majority of responses, to my surprise, are against moving back the starting time of our school. They made valid points which reminded me of certain advantages and disadvantages of this alteration which I hadn’t previously taken into account.

There are a few advantages to starting school at a later time. One of these is that it would allow students to wake up later. Because the location of AISG Science Park is considerably remote, metro and car  are usually the best methods of transportation to and from school. There are students who live close to school, but for those who live far away, the journey could become rather unpleasant. Personally, it takes me about an hour to get to AISG from my house, which means I would need to wake up at 6:10 in the morning and leave home to catch the metro around 6:50 to avoid being late. I know for a fact that there are students who are in worse situations than me. So if school were to start later it would be advantageous to them since they wouldn’t have to wake up as early. Considering Guangzhou’s transportation systems, however, the later one leaves the house, the more people there will be on the road, along with all the inconveniences which come with rush hour.

Another advantage of starting school late is the effect it has on student efficiency in class. One of the major reasons of students performing poorly in school is a lack of sleep. Some students, especially IB students, do not get nearly enough sleep. The minimum number of hours of sleep for adolescents is eight hours. It seems rare for students or teachers to be meeting this requirement judging by the amount of coffee that is being bought in the school café. Aside from academic performance, starting school later could also improve student health and safety (Time). They would also be less likely to fall asleep in class and could hopefully have improved concentration during the day (PMC). But, when you really look at these effects, it’s not hard to notice that such aspects are fundamentally controlled by the amount of sleep a person can get at night, and there is more than one way of improving this other than changing the time school starts.

One of the main drawbacks of altering the daily school schedule is the impact it would have on participants in after-school extracurricular activities. If school were to end at a later time, sports practices and other activities would also end later. Some students also participate in choir practices which takes place after the first set of activities. Without even mentioning the various programs and classes some students enroll in during nighttime, these practices end at 5:30, forcing some students to get home after 6. This is an issue as there is then not much time left for students to finish their assignments before they should go to sleep. It is unlikely anyone would want to get home at even later times due to these activities, which is perfectly understandable and something I agree with.

An alternative to starting school at a later time, as suggested by Mr. Tragert, would be to shorten the break time in between classes from 10 minutes to 5 minutes. This change would give students 10 extra minutes in the day which can be reallocated to lunchtime. This could possibly benefit the student body immensely. Or as Mr. Sinclair suggested, after school activities could take place during the day instead of after school. This would allow students who participate in such activities to be able to clear their heads before class starts and be ready for the day. Then, for students who do not participate in after school programs, they can start class later in the day. Though the effect is unknown, this idea certainly has potential.

There are many ways our experience at AISG can be improved: sound off in the comments if you have any suggestions!