By 7.30am, while much of London is still stirring awake, pupils at London Academy of Excellence Tottenham are already stacking Jenga blocks, lacing up trainers for dodgeball, and handing in their phones. Here, the school day can stretch to 12 hours, blending academic rigour with structured play and strict digital detox in a bid to rethink what education looks like in the smartphone age.
This radical timetable, recently profiled by The Guardian in “Jenga, dodgeball and no phones: a London school’s radical 12-hour day”, challenges conventional assumptions about how long children should be in school, what they should be doing there, and how far institutions can go in policing technology. Supporters say it offers a safe, enriching environment that boosts attainment and wellbeing; critics question whether such intensity risks burnout and overreach. As Britain grapples with falling attention spans, rising anxiety and deepening educational inequality, the experiment unfolding in this north London comprehensive offers a revealing glimpse of one possible future for the school day.
Inside Londons 12 hour school day How extended hours reshape learning and family life
The day now stretches from 7.30am breakfast to 7.30pm pickup, compressing what used to be scattered across homes, clubs and tutoring sessions into one long, choreographed arc. Between maths and English, pupils drift through Jenga tournaments in the library, dodgeball in the sports hall and quiet corners where phones are off-limits and eye contact is back in fashion. The corridors feel less like a pressure cooker and more like a youth club stitched onto a classroom block, with teachers moving between roles as instructors, mentors and sometimes stand‑in older siblings. Parents, many working irregular hours, say the change has turned the daily scramble of childcare into a single, predictable handover at the school gate.
Yet the new routine does more than fill time; it subtly rewires relationships and expectations at home. Homework is mostly finished before children climb into the back seat, leaving evenings for shared meals rather than battles over worksheets.Families talk of calmer bedtimes, but also of children who are more tired, more bonded to school staff, and more absent from local streets and parks. The rhythm of the neighbourhood shifts as well: playgrounds empty earlier, while classroom lights burn late. In this experiment in extended schooling, London is testing not just a timetable but a different social contract about who raises children, when learning happens and where community life is supposed to unfold.
- No-phone rule encourages face-to-face play and conversation.
- Structured sport replaces unsupervised after-school hours.
- On-site homework clubs ease pressure on busy households.
- Shared meals in the canteen mimic family-style dining.
| Time | Focus | Impact at Home |
|---|---|---|
| 07:30-09:00 | Breakfast & games | Less morning rush |
| 09:00-15:30 | Core lessons | Reduced private tutoring |
| 15:30-17:30 | Clubs & sport | Fewer childcare gaps |
| 17:30-19:30 | Supper & study | More family downtime |
Playground pedagogy Why Jenga dodgeball and games are becoming serious educational tools
In this experimental London timetable, foam balls and wooden blocks are treated with the same seriousness as textbooks. Teachers use structured playground sessions to rehearse skills that are hard to teach in rows of desks: anticipation, collaboration and emotional regulation. A game of dodgeball is broken down like a science experiment – who communicates, who freezes, who takes risks – then reassembled in a debrief where pupils reflect on choices under pressure. Jenga towers become a low-stakes rehearsal space for dealing with failure in public, as collapsing structures prompt conversations about resilience and trying again. The subtext is clear: lessons about timing, strategy and empathy do not only belong on the page; they can be thrown, caught and stacked.
Staff talk about these activities as part of a deliberate curriculum, not a break from it. With phones locked away, attention is redirected towards bodies, voices and eye contact, embedding social literacy into the school day. Games are chosen and tweaked to map onto specific outcomes:
- Dodgeball – reading cues, managing adrenaline, respecting boundaries
- Jenga – turn-taking, patience, handling visible setbacks
- Team tag – swift decision-making, shared responsibility
- Cooperative puzzles – listening, negotiation, leadership rotation
| Game | Skill Focus | Classroom Link |
|---|---|---|
| Jenga | Risk & planning | Problem-solving in maths |
| Dodgeball | Focus under stress | Exam conditions |
| Relay games | Team roles | Group projects |
The no phone experiment What happens when pupils unplug from smartphones for an entire school day
By 7.45am, a clear plastic box sits on the reception desk like an altar to self-denial.One by one, pupils drop in their devices-some casually, others with a theatrical last scroll-before heading to registration with empty pockets and twitchy thumbs. The impact is immediate: corridors that once glowed blue with screen light fill instead with low-level chatter,eye contact and the scrape of chairs as early birds set up a spontaneous game of Jenga in the common area. Teachers say discipline issues dip when screens are out of reach, but the pupils notice something subtler: conversations stretch, jokes land, and attention in the first period isn’t split between the whiteboard and a buzzing notification. What began as a nerve-racking detachment from their digital lifelines becomes,over the hours,an oddly liberating reset.
Without the constant pull of apps, pupils start to reorder their day around face-to-face moments. At break, the football cage and dodgeball court are packed; the usually silent corners of the playground become hubs for card games and quick chess matches. Staff track the shift in behavior with a low-tech tally, pinned to a noticeboard in the staffroom:
- More eye contact during discussions in class
- Faster settling at the start of lessons
- Fewer social flare-ups triggered by online posts
- Increased participation in clubs and physical games
| Time | With Phones | Without Phones |
|---|---|---|
| Break | Scrolling in clusters | Games, chats, movement |
| Lunch | Headphones, isolation | Shared tables, louder buzz |
| After school | Quick exits | Clubs, lingering conversations |
Policy lessons for educators How other schools can adapt longer days without burning out staff or students
For policymakers and school leaders, the key insight is that extending the timetable cannot simply mean stretching the same academic grind across more hours. The London experiment shows that additional time works only when it is reshaped, not just lengthened. That means budgeting for structured play and decompression,not treating them as luxuries. Leaders can phase in a longer day gradually, beginning with one or two extended afternoons a week, and use those sessions to pilot low-cost, high-engagement activities: board games instead of smartphones, team sports instead of solitary screen time, and creative clubs that tap staff passions rather than bolt-on interventions. Crucially, teachers must be protected from “hidden overtime”: clear workload audits, capped meeting times and rota systems for after-school supervision are as crucial as any curriculum tweak.
Systems that thrive on longer days also build explicit safeguards into policy. That includes written agreements with staff on maximum contact time, funded training for non-teaching assistants to lead clubs, and timetables that balance high-focus lessons with social and physical outlets. School leaders can start with a simple planning matrix:
| Time Block | Focus | Wellbeing Check |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | Core subjects | Short breaks, quiet zones |
| Afternoon | Applied learning | Outdoor time, movement |
| Late day | Clubs & games | Opt-in, low-stakes, fun |
- Protect staff with duty rotas, time off in lieu and clear end-of-day cut-offs.
- Center students’ wellbeing via no-phone policies, active play and social spaces.
- Use data lightly-survey fatigue, attendance and behaviour to refine the model, not to punish.
- Involve families early so transport,meals and care responsibilities do not become pressure points.
The Way Forward
As the bell finally rings at 7pm, pupils at St George’s file out clutching Jenga towers, sports kits and dog-eared paperbacks instead of smartphones. For critics, the school’s 12-hour day risks overreach, extending institutional control into what was once family time. For its defenders, it represents a bold, if imperfect, attempt to close yawning gaps in opportunity and attention.
Whether this experiment becomes a template for others or remains an outlier will depend on evidence not just of exam results, but of pupil wellbeing, staff stamina and parental trust. For now, in a city where many children return to empty homes and glowing screens, one London school has chosen to fill the long hours after lunch with dodgeballs, board games and conversation – and to ask what education might look like when the school day doesn’t end at three o’clock.
