Cotham School plans to move the school start time forward by 10 minutes from 8:40 to 8:30 and the end time forward by 20 minutes from 3:05 to 2:45. There are numerous reasons why this will have a negative impact on students:

1. The body's internal clock shifts during your teenage years with your melatonin levels, the hormone responsible for signaling your body to sleep, only rising at about 10:30 or 11:00 pm. If teenagers are only sleepy at around that time then ideally they should be sleeping until 7:30 or 8:00 am, given the needed 9 to 9.5 hours of sleep needed for teens. If the school start time were to change to 8:30 then the majority of students would not have enough time to get ready and get to school, which is already a struggle already for many with the current 8:40 start time. 
   Making this change to school start times would completely neglect students' need for a good nights sleep in order to properly learn.
2. Teenagers are generally most energetic, intellectually productive and creative in the evening and by moving end times forward the school hours tap less into these precious hours that could be used for learning.
3. Many students will have particular trains or buses they need to catch in order to get to school. Moving school times forward would risk ruining travel plans for many of these and could lead to students waking up more than 10 minutes earlier to catch certain buses or trains.
4. Some students may catch a ride from their parents to get to school. Moving school start times forward could put unneeded pressure on parents or force new travel arrangements to be made, again potentially making students wake far earlier.

Overall this is the wrong change for the school to make as it negatively impacts students in numerous ways and is a step in the wrong direction for student wellbeing. If anything, school should start later in order to have full student concentration and therefore better learning.

Please share this petition with other students or parents, thanks

Source:
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-teens-can-concentrate-learn-and-think-better-when-well-rested/