Apparently teenagers aren't being lazy when they lie in, it's the way they are built. Dr Paul Kelley, headteacher at Monkseaton Community High School, is advocating schools starting lessons at 11am to help teenagers perform better. According to research by Professor Russell Foster at the school, teenagers brains work better in the afternoon.

Professor Foster claims that our body clocks shift at age 10 leaving teenagers 2 hours out of sync, shifting back from age 20 to arrive at pre-teen stage at age 55. In other words most of us need a lie in - no argument there! I wonder if teenagers who don't watch tv or play computer games into the wee small hours have the same body clock as those who do.

Dr Kelley also advocates 20 minute lessons broken up by 10 minutes of physical activity. This is based on an experiment he did which resulted in pupils achieving up to 90% in Science GCSE after only one hours study. Needless to say cynics have claimed this says more about the standard of the GCSE than the teaching method.

Dr Kelley is no stranger to controversy. In 2000 one of his pupils was turned down by Oxford despite 10 GCSEs at A* and 4 A grades predicted at A level. When Laura managed to obtain a place at Harvard Kelley cried foul accusing the university of discrimination against northern comprehensive schools like his. Gordon Brown personally took up the case saying it was time Oxford opened its doors to women and people of all backgrounds. It was Oxford's turn to be indignant: 22 had applied for the 5 places (all with grades as good as Laura's) and of the 5 who got places 3 were women, 3 were from ethnic minorities and 2 were from comprehensives. They claimed the problem was that pupils from comprehensives lacked confidence in interview. This explanation was later given greater credibility when Laura said she had always agreed with Oxford's decision, she hadn't prepared well enough for interview.

Dr Kelley also attempted to get exemption from the requirement for collective worship in schools.

Anyhow, I'm off to negotiate an 11 o'clock start to my day to improve my performance!