There are already enough diversions to keep children awake half the night, from computer games to Snapchat and texting. It is not uncommon for bleary-eyed students to traipse into lessons and fall asleep at their desks, even at the best of times. And the World Cup has made things much, much worse.

The time lag between Brazil and Europe has meant that children keen to watch their footballing heroes in action are staying up way past what should be their bedtime. The England v Italy game in Manaus, situated in the heart of the Amazon basin, started at 11pm UK time. Consequently, millions of children were up into the small hours. It may have taken place on a Saturday, but the impact would still have been felt in double maths on Monday morning.

Even the 8pm game on Thursday in Sao Paulo was too late for many. It ended at around 10pm, but with the obligatory post-match analysis and a few bottles of celebratorycommiserative fizzy pop, it was set to write off Friday-morning lessons.

It isn’t clear if this predicament has a solution - perhaps it is just one of those things that teachers have to tolerate. Some killjoys may suggest that the best we can hope for is that England doesn’t get to play in too many more matches. But surely Roy’s Boys aren’t going to let that happen, are they? Because dealing with the distress of an early exit could be even tougher for teachers.