BELL (SCHOOL)

A 'bell' is a signal in a school, either a real bell, a distributed ringer or heard over the intercom that tells the students when it is time to go to class in the morning and when it is time to change classes during the day. Typically the first bell tells the students that it is time to report to class and the bell that occurs shortly after that means that the students are late. There may also be a warning bell between the first bell and the late bell.
Smithtown East, for example, has a bell at the beginning and end of the period. Weaverham High School uses the bell as a fire alarm, as well as an alert for lessons beginning.
Nowadays, the regular electric school bells are becoming obsolete, to make way for time tones sounded over the intercom.
The short bell also indicates the end of a particular subject class