Earlier and later

A sensible and imaginative move from Wolfson Hillel Primary School, which is to start its day half an hour earlier at 8.20. As the head teacher rightly says, the evidence shows that "young children learn better earlier in the day".

But for all the praise due to the school for breaking free of a timetable determined by tradition rather than sense, there is equally overwhelming evidence to show that older children learn far better later in the day. And yet there is almost no appetite for starting and ending the school day for teenagers later.

One day a school will have the courage to work from the evidence. It will reap the rewards.