EXCLUSIVE by: MAGGIE GIBSON HEAD teacher Sean Heslop has hit the national headlines with his pioneering policy of slashing the amount of homework given to pupils while improving exam results. Mr Heslop, who is head of boys grammar Tiffin School in Kingst

EXCLUSIVE by: MAGGIE GIBSON

HEAD teacher Sean Heslop has hit the national headlines with his pioneering policy of slashing the amount of homework given to pupils while improving exam results.

Mr Heslop, who is head of boys' grammar Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, was educated in March where his mother Eileen lives in Hereward Street.

The middle son of Eileen and her late husband Roy, Mr Heslop was educated at the town's Burrowmoor, Hereward and Neale-Wade schools. He then went on study English literature at Queens' College, Cambridge.

This week Mr Heslop, 40, has been interviewed on radio, television and has appeared in the national press about his views on the amount of homework given to youngsters.

Commenting on the amount of homework previously given at the school in some subjects, Mr Heslop said: "By the end pupils told me that they were almost losing the will to live and took hours over doing it."

He said in history and geography pupils were having to answer questions which required them simply to repeat word for word what they had been taught in class.

Pupils were also missing out on other activities and even enjoying formal mealtimes simply because they did not have time because of the amount of homework.

While slashing homework by 75 per cent with pupils having no more than 40 minutes day prep with a further 20 minutes revision or reading, results have gone up. The policy has met with a mixed reaction from parents.

Mrs Heslop said while her son never complained about the amount of homework he had to do at school, she supported his views.