14/08/2014 BBC Channel Islands News

opher news on the BBC News Ch`nfel, and on our website, but th!t hs all

for now. It is Smiles of joy, as Channel Islands

students get their A` level results. But there are calls tonight to

change the system, so more Two more witnesses give evidence to

an inquiry into abuse For hundreds of students

and their parents across thd Channel Islands, today has been a d`y

of celebration and commiser`tion. It's been A`level results d`y,

and both Guernsey and Jersex have managed to outperform

their counterparts in England. But, as Mike Wilkins reports,

this year has provided uniqte challenges for the students,

and now, one Education Minister in the Islands is calling

for the system to be overhatled so The envelopes that can decide

the future. And today, at Guernsey's Gr`mmar

School, there were plenty of smiles, This year's school leavers have had

more challenges to face than previous cohorts,

as the rules changed halfwax through It is not getting easier at all It

is changing, these students, halfway through the course, the Govdrnment

said they can no longer be lodular. This time last year they kndw they

had to move to a linear second part of the course and they weren't

expecting that. But that didn't seem to affdct pass

rates, as students in Jersey also celebrated bdtter

results than those in England. I did really well. I have got an

A`star. I am really happy.

Jersey and Guernsey's grades are slightly down, compared to last

Jersey's Education Minister says, although students this year

performed well, the range of a level options should change.

That is quite difficult with five A`level providers because some of

those cohorts are quite small. I would like to look at that. I would

also like to make sure that the access, the access to A`levdls is

there for all the different schools and

So there could soon be more options for students to choose from.

But, on days like today, it's the results that can ddcide

Two former residents of the Haut de la Garenne c`re home

in Jersey have said they did not see or experience any abuse.

Michael Laing, now 60, told an inquiry set up to

investigate abuse in state`run care homes in Jersey, says he was abused

in two foster families, and said he wished he'd spent all

Today, the panel at the Card Inquiry has heard from two more people who

Michael Laing spent most of his time in foster homes,

and described being regularly beaten by both his foster parents,

and having a soiled rag pushed in his mouth in case the nehghbours

He also described being sextally abused, both while in hospital, and

when he lived with a foster family, over an extended period of time

But he said he'd been back `nd forwards so many times, his mindset

He said he didn't say anythhng to the Children's Officer or

the Superintendent as he didn't have a close relationship with them.

This afternoon, 78`year`old Malcolm Carver described

He said there was a strict regime which prepared him

And he didn't think there w`s any more bullying than you'd get

He said he was worldly wise, and would've noticed somethhng.

Mr Laing will resume his testimony when the panel sits

A further two arrests have been made in connection with a burglary

Around 50 items were taken from the Martin and Martin store on Londay.

A 31`year`old man and 21`ye`r`old woman have now been arrested,

The public are being asked to lookout for items being offdred

for sale, particularly whitd and yellow gold diamond rings.

Properties in Jersey are more expensivd than

House prices have increased 5% in the second quarter of thhs year.

The average price for a three`bedroom house in Jersey

is now ?508,000, that's the highest for thred years.

Property sales are up 13%, dstate agents say this

One of the ships being used to move freight supplies into the Channel

Islands is back in service, less than 20 hours after it developed a

The MV Arrow experienced technical difficulties off the coast

It was brought in after the Commodore Clipper ran into

Nearly 30 floats, tens of thousands of spectators

and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of flowers.

This year's Jersey Battle of Flowers may not have been under blazing

sunshine, but the wind and rain didn't deter Miss Battle,

Holly Perchard, and Mr Battle, the singer Ray Quinn, from wowing

Clare Burton brings you all the action.

It is about half an hour to kick off. It is cold, windy, it has been

raining. Petals are flying `way from the floats, you might be forgiven

for thinking it might be a bit bleak.

But this is Jersey and we are not going to let a little bit of weather

gets in the way of a party. Are you ready

What are you enjoying this xear I am enjoying the floats going by

I like the sounds. You have some confetti, what are you going to do

with that? Chuck it at the floats! Are the judges going to givd any

dispensation because of the weather?

How are they coping? Really well, particularly the younger chhldren

who frozen but they are still smiling. It is amazing.

`` who are frozen. Battle would not be completd without

Mr and Mrs battle. How do you prepare for this kind of we`ther? It

is not too bad. I have been informed my makd up will

be the same whatever the we`ther. It has been a great day so far.

Mr Battle, your adoring public. What you think? This is fantastic.

The support, the people who have turned out, with the weather, it is

great. Everyone is raving, confetti everywhere. I have this round my

neck, I might as well be in Hawaii, never mind the weather.

What is this all about? We have a great team, lots of families

involved. Great fun.

You won last year, the pressure is on.

There are some lovely floats out there. We have had a great xear

Hopefully we will win it. And The Optimists Club did take

the top prize, The Prix d'Honneur, More photos on our Facebook page,

and that video will be online later It is time for the weather, let us

find out what tomorrow will bring. We had a bit of drizzle tod`y, not a

particularly beautiful summdr day. It wasn't brilliant but for most of

the day we got away with sole dry weather.

For the parade tomorrow, thdre is a better chance of it being dry but

you will have two wrap up w`rm. Thanks you for all of your

photographs, this is the super moon we saw if you days ago. The weather

is set much better for tomorrow still a breeze, but mainly dry,

patchy cloud, temperatures tp to 19. A great lump of cloud across the

English Channel, this area of rain is moving into northern France

overnight. It moves through quite swiftly. Tomorrow is quite right,

with a ridge of pressure. The showers will be with us overnight,

one or two are likely to be heavy. By the morning, they are isolated.

Still some early in the day, 14 degrees minimum.

Briefly some showers, then the sunshine comes out. The rest of the

day is pleasant, if you can get out off the breeze. 19 is the hhghest

temperature. It will stay dry into the evening. This is the co`stal

waters forecast. And here are the times of hhgh

water. A quick look at the forecast for the

parade tomorrow evening, it will still be dry, those Northwest winds

will still be with us, so wrap up warmly in the evening. You light

even see some stars, a reasonable evening. Into the weekend, Saturday

is a dry date but later in the day on Sunday we will see some patchy

rain. It looks better for tomorrow. Thank

you. That's it for now. Two men were charged with

Mr Abatan's manslaughter but the case was dropped because

of a lack of evidence. One of those men, Graham Curtis

committed suicide in 2003. Three Sussex police detectives

involved in the original investigation were disciplined

and their units work described as a potential students have been trying

to find out if they have got a place Here is the man in charge

of admissions here. We have dealt with

around 7000 calls today. About 3500 of those were

in the first two hours. There are normally two types of

enquiry, those who have alrdady been made offers and they want to check

that they have secured their place at the University of Exeter, and

then there are those who ard ringing Well, we are pretty full

at this campus here in Exetdr, but we do have some vacancies in Penryn,

our Cornwall campus, so for those with high grades, we have bden

trying to advise them about that. We have seen people

on the phones all day dealing with Let's speak to someone who has

actually been on the end What it has what has it been

like for you today? The vast majority of calls

unfortunately have been students calling in and they have narrowly

missed the requirements that we have for them to take up their places

here at Exeter, so unfortun`tely But in one case,

we did have a student who dhdn't believe the good news that he had

on UCAS tracking and he just wanted to call up and here it

from the horse's mouth and that was Nice to be giving

someone some good news. The lines here are going to

be open until 8pm tonight. Also open all day tomorrow

and it has not just been here. At the University of Plymouth,

they have been dealing with 500 calls as well

as the universities and students try Staff at the Royal Cornwall Hospital

in Treliske are fighting pl`ns to The Hospital Trust is stopphng

a parking subsidy given to employees, in order to prioritise

clinical services. Unions say the average charge will

rise from less than ?60 The event was forced to close early

due to bad weather. Spectators will get the face value of their day

tickets back. A hundred years on from the start

of the First World War, the BBC has been reminding visitors

to the Okehampton Show what life was like for both the soldiers

on the frontline, The BBC's World War One at Home

on tour gave people the opportunity to find out about all those

affected, even their own relatives. This music has been inspired by

what life was like a centurx ago. BBC Three Devon brought the World

War One at Home tour to Okehampton. If gave people a taste

of life back then, and with the help of the Imperial War Museum, a chance

to find out about the peopld of the I was trying to find a record

of my grandfather, but unfortunately he was known by two surnames

as he was born out of wedlock. I will have to go

and have a good search. It doesn't have to be

a family member, it might be somebody else you're

interested in, perhaps the name of your local war memorial, or today

we had a lady whose free se`rching School back then was

quite different. There were no laptops,

mobile phones or iPads, I am teaching the lesson,

you are learning, all you h`ve to do I think you should put that

down again. Would you prefer to be

at school back then? No. Why not? Because it is ` bit

scary. Signing up with a datnting prospect for any young man hn 1 14.

Millions dead. This was a rdminder of the sacrifices so many m`de. It

would be scary if it was forgotten, and I think the digital age and

things like that, people don't realise what went on. It is

fascinating and it is sad btt we can still celebrated in a sad w`y I

suppose. With almost a centtry gone, why are we still trying so hard to

keep such a dramatic period of our history alive? It is

because we have to remember the sacrifices that people made during

that time and also to entire country was on a war

footing, it wasn't just abott the soldiers, it was a truly worldwide

conflict. Today wasn't just a reminder. It was also helping gather

information as a permanent digital memorial is put together to

at the 8 million people who contributed to the war effort.

Thousands of people are in Falmouth this week for the resort's regatta.

The event has become one of the largest of its kind in the south

west with around 450 yachts involved in seven days of competition.

And Spotlight's Heidi Davey is there for us tonight.

Hello. As you can see behind me a rather lively atmosphere here.

Racing may be over for the day here, presentations are now taking

place, whilst they take a well`deserved break, we can look

back at what it has already had to offer this week. And they are off.

Races have been taking placd in the waters of former all week. The event

has grown into one of the l`rgest sailing regatta has. Falmouth is

particularly proud of its working boat history and many crews are here

soaking up the party atmosphere Our boats are working boat, and

therefore it is tradition, keeping tradition at home is very ilportant

and as far as I am concerned, we are here to support Falmouth, and it is

what it is all about, because we are the boys. It is not just thd teams

on the water having all the fun Plenty of action has been l`id on

for visitors to the town, old cobbled streets baffling as

people make the most of the weather. a lot of people think the s`me as

me, we look forward it is one of the most important

things in the calendar of the year. And one of the highlights of the

week so far has been the red arrows. As always, they put on an ilpressive

aerobatic display for the crowds last night. But it is not over yet.

There are are still two offhcial days of racing left, which will see

flashing sailing club play host to a crew, and on Sunday it is p`ddled at

the ready as Dragon boat racing brings the week to a close. I am

joined now by Roger, who is the rear Commodore sailor at the club. Roger,

you take it in turns to plax host across the bay, don't you? Xes.

Almost week started in the 0960s, although there was a historx of

regatta sailing dating back to the 1830s. I think the oldest ctp is

about 1828, and there is a lot of strong war heritage of the sailing,

and we got together, as we did then, and we decided to have a Sunday

regatta called Barmouth week, and each club to host one day of

Barmouth week. For the Thursday it is traditionally the Cornwall

regatta day, and that is whx we are here. It is one of the senior clubs

along the coast. We were formed in 1871, and we took a leading role in

arming the Barmouth sailing Association. It is a rather lively

evening, as we can see here. Well, sailors are unlikely. They like to

enjoy themselves. The whole point is that it is fierce competition, and

they are sorting out minor disputes over there as we speak. And the

others who perhaps did not do so well were less competitive `re here

in joining a few pints and some food and so forth and so

We will have entertainment `s the evening goes on. It is, as xou said,

fiercely competitive. It is all about the racing, isn't it? Yes

When I raised myself, they told me that when the signal went off five

minutes before the start, horns used to grow and blood would comd out of

the corner of my eyes as I settled down to get the best place on

starting line. And you have been blessed with the weather, so far,

but we have been lucky. It hs funny. We

and keen to win the race, it doesn't even

because you don't notice it, you just

town is extremely busy. It brings in so much revenue.

very important to the local community. It was borne out of the

almost waterfront. There is a print from the 1800, where the entire

waterfront is covered in sm`ll craft. And now we involve the town

in the regatta, so that everybody has a chance to enjoy it. Thank you,

Roger. There are two more official days of racing left, and most of the

fleet regatta which officially st`rts on

Sunday. Thank you, Heidi. Good evening. We have had some

really heavy showers. Thankfully, most of them are now weakenhng and

moving away. The main story for tomorrow is that it is much drier,

warmer, and there will sunshine. There will be somd

sunshine. There's to the day to day, because of the

showers. that has brought all those showers

is us. You can make out the sotth`west

of England here. What follows is in edge of high pressure. It sdems a

long way off, but it will gdt little bit closer tomorrow, and by

the middle of the high pressure is just about

holding, north`west as we move into Sunday,

so a change on skies and perhaps rain to. That is a

fairly colourful picture. what we have seen so far today. Now,

there are still some showers Devon and Dorset. This was darlier

today in Exeter. camera lady got very wet filming

these shots in the lead torrential such short spells of time h`s

created localised This is the view in Edgecumbe,

filmed by our cameraman Dan. We had some blue sky and some fine weather,

away, and a few look into the distance, you can see the

for the next couple of days, is mainly dry. There

across parts of Dorset. Thex will fade away, and a few will come along

down through the early hours. For most of us,

those showers have introducdd slightly colder air, so

Celsius or 10 Celsius, and ` cold night to

around first thing tomorrow morning. No tomorrow, a

some clipping the West of Cornwall will

into the afternoon to give some sunshine, and it should

fine and dry day. The cloud amounts will come and

The winds are still from a cold direction, so don't expect

a temperature. Perhaps 18 Cdlsius or 19 Celsius. The North Coast here

while the 16 Celsius or 17 Celsius, with that breeze. As I menthoned, it

is mainly dry. There could be some showers in the early part of the

day, but they will fade awax and then mainly fine and dry.

Mainly fear, with generally good visibility. Now, one thing to note

about the outlook is we had temperatures of 25 Celsius or even

27 Celsius at times. It will be much colder through the weekend `nd into

next week. Both daytime temperatures and night`time temperatures a little

below what we would expect for this time of the

will be picking up for a few spots of rain, and Shari on Mondax with

temperatures no higher than 17 Celsius or 18 Celsius.

This week marks ten years since the Boscastle floods `

when heavy rain sent a wall of water through the villagd.

A hundred people had to bd airlift to safety `

116 cars were swept away ` `nd one of the biggest rescue operations

On tomorrow's Spotlight we will have a special report.

We will also be live in the village to learn what has

been done since the disaster to prevent it happening again.

Also in Spotlight tomorrow we'll catch up with a 25`year`old woman

from Cornwall who was paralxsed in a riding accident two ye`rs ago.

Suzanna Hext broke her back and pelvis and was left in a whdelchair

She's recently started riding again, and is determined to walk whthout

Now she's learning to stand up using a bionic leg.

I'm back with the late news at 10.25pm.