High school seniors say new early school schedule is a challenge

A new change to school schedules in Burnaby has some high schoolers drinking coffee. 

Four schools in Burnaby have instituted earlier school starts as part of a schedule rearrangement designed to combat overcrowding in Schools. High school students who spoke to 8forty explained how they think about the changes and how they deal with them. 

For the 2025/26 school year, a few schools in the Burnaby school district in British Columbia have implemented earlier starts and a longer day overall to prevent overcrowding. Because of the early school start, many students need to change their daily routines. 

The new system implements a 5-block day that starts at 8 am, 40 minutes earlier than previous years.  

In a recent survey, 100 students where asked about how the early start of school affects them. Only 15% of all students stated that the changes had a positive effect on their life, while 45% stated that it has worsened their life’s general quality. 40% said that their life quality hasn’t changed much, but of these 40 students 26 said that their daily routines have changed significantly. 

We know from many scientific studies that teens have different sleep needs than others. According to research from Brown University, the circadian rhythm changed during our adolescent years, meaning that teens will go to bed, or at least want to go to bed, up to two hours later and therefore also sleep for two hours longer.  

This problem is further enhanced by the fact that some teenagers feel like their time is getting stolen by school, so they stay up later to make up for the “lost” time. 

“I feel like school is stealing my time, because I could do more sport instead of doing assignments and I also need to prepare and study for it, so I have less time in the evening. Sometimes I stay up later, and sometimes I feel like I stay up later to feel like I did something for myself today,” one student told 8forty. 

All of this leads to the teenagers having to change their daily routines to be able to come to school on time as well as sleeping enough for their changing bodies to recover for the following day, or sacrifice either their daily routines or their recovery, or both.  

A Student in 11 grade named Kevin (this name and all student and teacher names in this article are pseudonyms used to protect individuals’ privacy) told us that ever since the changes in the school time, he hasn’t had enough time in the morning for breakfast which he now eats in his classes.  

He doesn’t get up earlier for breakfast “I am tired and my bed is so comfy,” he explained. 

Some other students agreed with this approach. “Eating in class is just easier,” one said. “I have more time to sleep and can eat while reading articles in class.”  

Other students have added coffee to their morning routine. “Ever since I need to wake up earlier, I am way more tired than before and also drink more coffee as a result of that,” says Stella, a 12 grader who needs to wake up at 6:45 every day to be in class on time every day. “And I still miss the bus 2 or 3 times a week and am late,” she said. 

Last year, Stella says, she only drank about one cup a of coffee a day, but now she drinks two, one in the morning and one after school, and sometimes even three if her homework is too much or schedule is very full. Another student, an international student from Italy, says that the early mornings make them unable to call their parents during school days because of the 9-hour time difference. “I was expecting to wake up later than in Italy and that’s not the case, and that’s very stressing now to have so little contacted to my parents and friends for the next two months.” 

One positive effect for some students is that they can end their day earlier, provided that their spare block is the last block of the day. Those students report having more free time than before which leads to more activities that the students do. 

For example, Ben, a student in 11^th Grade said, “Ever since the school ends early for me, I have way more time to do the things I like later.” Though he also says, “I dislike that I can’t be with every friend of every school the whole time because of the huge difference in the start and end times of the different schools.”. 
 

 Even though most students dislike the change there are some who don’t mind, or even like it because they would wake up early anyway or because they get more free time now. 

Alex is one of the students who doesn’t mind the changes. “I do sports in the morning either way,” he told 8forty. “So it’s just that I can go to school faster and get home faster as well without any waiting like in the last years.” 

Some teachers are also not that happy about these new changes, saying that it’s not good for education or for the students. But by now most teachers and students have the opinion that even though the changes aren’t the best, the majority have got already used to it. 

“It’s challenging but the schools are more resilient than we think,” said a biology teacher at one of the affected schools. 

Another teacher said, “I believe that earlier school start times such as 8 am, are an added challenge to the already stressed and busy life that many students face.” and continued saying that “Biologically, the students find it harder than adults.” 

At the same time, that teacher believed there was a potential benefit. “Students can use it to discipline themselves and get into better routines for their adult life,” he said. 

“As with most changes or experiments that seem doomed to fail or present challenges that go against biological reasoning there is usually an opportunity to challenge oneself or set yourself up for a chance to succeed,” says a Psychology teacher at one of the schools. “We may not agree with it but we are better when we accept the things we cannot change.”  

Cover Image: Freepik