Students sitting early morning exams later this month have been granted a slight reprieve: they now won't have to get their brains into gear until 6.30 a.m.

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) told The Royal Gazette yesterday that it had agreed to schools on the Island getting students onto the premises and supervised by 6 a.m., rather than 5.30 a.m., to sit their GCSEs half an hour later.

Linda Parker, head of school at Bermuda High School for Girls, said she was "delighted" that the extra 30 minutes had been granted.

"It does give the students an extra 30 minutes either to get to school or sleep in a little bit longer," she said. "We do appreciate this extra 30 minutes, especially for those students coming from the extremities of the Island. We are grateful."

AQA spokesman Claire Ellis said the rule forcing students outside the UK to take their exams at the same time as pupils in Britain or be supervised was not new and she was not sure why it had caused problems for Bermuda this year.

"This is something that's quite a news item for the Island," she said. "We do get contact from overseas centres but I have certainly not come across anything on this scale."

The hundreds of thousands of British students sitting AQA exams in the morning start at 9.30 a.m. and are allowed to leave the exam hall half an hour later, when they could, in theory, pass information on to students in later time zones waiting to take the same tests.

Students in Bermuda — which is four hours behind the UK — must therefore be supervised from 6 a.m.

Ms Ellis said: "It doesn't automatically mean exams in Bermuda have to start at 6 a.m. or 6.30 a.m. They can start later as long as the students have been under supervision.

"That extends to all exam centres in Bermuda as long as they are able to make the same provision and have those same conditions in place that candidates will be supervised by 6 a.m. There is the usual proviso about not having access to certain forms of communication."

She said AQA had written to the Ministry of Education to explain the conditions. "It isn't a new thing. It is something that has always been in place. It's something that's in place when centres sign up. They know what they are signing up to."

She said AQA had exam centres in the US and in earlier time zones than the UK, where students have to be kept under supervision after exams.

"It's just so easy for something to be transmitted," she said. "This is not something that reflects on any individual school at all. You have to be aware that these things are possible. We have to look at it from the point of view of all candidates sitting exams.

"It's maintaining that integrity so every candidate sitting the exam is sitting it in the same position and no one has an advantage or disadvantage."

Saltus students arrived at the grammar school at 5.30 a.m. yesterday to sit their AQA AS Level Mathematics at 6 a.m. Nicole Chichon, deputy head of the senior year, said all 15 students arrived on time and the hour-and-a-half exam went smoothly.

"Obviously it was early but it went fine and there were no problems. Most of these ones are in the first year of our graduate programme. They are 16 already so most came on bikes. The breakfasts went down well!"

Today, 13 students at Saltus will start a three-hour AS Level ICT exam at 6 a.m. Ms Chichon said the school had no other 6 a.m. start times as other exam boards had agreed to 8 a.m. instead.

BHS students will sit exams later this month at 6.30 a.m. (arriving at school for 6 a.m.) as follows:

Tuesday, May 20: English Literature

Friday, May 23: Business Studies

Tuesday, June 3: English Language

Thursday, June 5: Additional Science

Thursday, June 5: Chemistry

Monday, June 23: Science

The Ministry of Education did not respond to repeated requests for information about the exam timetable at the two public schools or any special transport or meal arrangements.