A GLASGOW councillor has called for city teenagers to be allowed to start school at 10am because it may better suit their biological clock.

Bailie Dr Nina Baker has lodged a motion for Glasgow City Council to investigate the "practicalities and benefits" of a timetable change to start their school day at 10am.

The city centre councillor, who is a member of the Green party, said that recent academic research has found that teenagers require different sleep patterns compared to young children or adults, in order to work at their best.

In her motion, which will be raised to the council tomorrow, she states: "A waking up time of 7am for a teenager is the equivalent of a 5am wake-up call for an older adult.

"The normal school start time of 9am means that many or most teenagers arrive at school much more tired than their teachers, with proven bad results for memory and learning.

"UK schools which have experimented with a school day starting at 10am for teenagers have found that the youngsters achieved higher grades."

Neil Shaw, head teacher of Boclair Academy in East Dunbartonshire, said he has worked in a number of schools with varying start dates, including one at 8.35am, and did not see a difference in pupil performance.

He said: "The issue here is perhaps not about when the school day starts and when they go to bed of an evening.

"I'm a bit sceptical because I've worked in a system where the children started half an hour earlier in the day and I saw no evidence that children were educationally or academically disadvantaged by that."

A spokesman for the Educational Institute of Scotland said: "It is very unlikely such an initiative would find favour with parents and teachers."

Glasgow City Council said it would not comment on motions lodged ahead of committee meetings.

fiona.mckay@eveningtimes.co.uk