A private sixth form is set to move lessons to start at 1.30pm every day because the school's teacher thinks his teenage pupils will study better after a morning lie in.

Instead of rising early for a 9am start, pupils at the £15,000-a-year Hampton Court House, in East Molesey, Surrey, will get to enjoy a lie in and work from 1.30pm until 7pm.

Head teacher Guy Holloway says the move for all sixth form pupils, set to kick in from September, has been made in light of research by neuroscientists.

He predicts that not only will his students aged 16 and upwards get a quality night's sleep, but their cognition and productivity will also be improved.

The co-educational school will have the latest start time in the UK, and will be the only one to begin lessons in the afternoon.

Experts say young people are biologically programmed to get up later, and that rather than this being down to laziness it is simply a shift in their body clocks.

There are 168 hours in a week and how productive they are depends on how they choose to use those hours,' said Mr Holloway.

At Hampton Court House we don’t think we have the answer for everybody, it’s about what works in our community.’

Year 10 student Gabriel Purcell-Davis will be one of the first of 30 A-level students to start at the later time.

I want to wake up in my bed, not in my maths lesson,' said the 15-year-old.