05/05/2014 BBC London News

There is more throughout the evening on the BBC News Channel. We are back

with the latest News at ten. Now, time for the news where you are.

Bye`bye. Good evening and welcome. A

three`day Tube strike, which was due to begin this evening, has been

suspended. Leaders of the RMT union, who met Tube managers this morning,

said they'd made significant progress in their dispute over

ticket`office closures. Let's speak now to Helen Drew, who's outside

London Underground's headquarters. Helen, good news for everyone? It is

certainly good news in the short`term, Alice. It means that we

want needs to be setting our alarm clocks any earlier to counteract

travel disruption in the morning, but this dispute is not over. London

Underground is still going to press their head with its plans to review

closing its ticket offices, and the RMT is still against it. `` press

ahead. As the bank holiday weekend comes to an end, the Tube strike

being called off is welcome news to commuters, including those enjoying

the son The Sands. I have to admit, I was thinking about planning my

travel. I am really happy about that, because it is so

inconvenient. I am very pleased: I have some meetings in town and now

we will be able to get there. The three`day strike was part of an

ongoing dispute over London Underground plans to close all

ticket offices and cut jobs, but after just 90 minutes of talks

between them and the RMT union, a decision was made not to strike. But

this doesn't mean the dispute is over. London Underground still plans

to review potential station closes. It is a very open discussion, and

what we are going to do is continue with our station by station review,

we are also going to discuss our draft implementation plan, and

beyond that we will come back to ACAS and review the findings. And

the RMT still intends to campaign against those closures. We have got

some clear and standings from London Underground in terms of how we will

move forward, allowing us to campaign to keep every booking

office open. This was the disruption caused by last week's strike over

the same issue. For the next few days at least, commuters won't have

to relive the chaos. Of course, a future strike is still

possible. What happens next is that the RMT and London Underground will

get back together for talks to be held at ACAS, the conciliation

service. And that station by station review will go ahead with the

participation of all the relevant trade unions, and that is due to be

completed by the 23rd of May. A 13`year`old boy has appeared in

court charged with a man's murder in south west London. 39`year`old

Martin Thomas was found stabbed to death at his home in Roehampton two

weeks ago. The boy, who can't be named because of his age, was

remanded in custody. Another teenager, aged 15, is also charged

with murder. Now, with immigration a central

issue in the current European election campaign, some people are

asking how best to educate those children who don't have English as

their mother tongue and what impact it has on the other pupils. The

BBC's Mike Sergeant has been to Brent, one of the most diverse

boroughs in Britain. Byron Court in northwest London, one

of the most multicultural and multilingual schools in the country.

600 children, 42 different languages. Many of these children

spoke no English at all when they arrived aged five, six, seven or

eight. Now, a few years later, their confidence is growing. It was very

hard, but I learned it in two months. You learned English in two

months? Yeah. Well, not all of the words, just some of them. When I was

two years old, I went to nursery, and then I learned a bit of English

there. And when I came here, I got to learn all my English.

This part of London has more languages spoken than all most

anywhere else in the UK, so what is the impact of all of this diversity

on educational standards at school? The guiding principle here is to

treat all children equally. Success, though, requires plenty of support

and funding. Click on one of those and tell me if

it is a source of light... There needs to be enough good

teachers to help those struggling and support the ones surging ahead.

The local council says the large number of migrant families initially

lower school standards, but not for long. In Brent, our children perform

just below national averages when they are assessed at seven years

old. But by the time they are 11, they've caught up with national

standards, and at 16 they are flying.

There's lots of research that shows being bilingual is ultimately an

advantage, but what if your child is not from a migrant family. Some

education experts have their concerns. The problem is not really

migrant children. The problem is that children who are native

speakers of English being taught alongside non`native speakers of

English, and in my experience and talking to parents, there are many

parents whose children are in classes where the majority of

children don't speak English, and they feel that their

English`speaking child is at a disadvantage. This could have

long`term and very serious social consequences.

And with immigration an increasingly important political issue, the

educational challenges making the system work for all children,

whatever their backgrounds. Mike Sergeant there. Now let's take

a look at the weather with Sara Thornton.

Hello. A lovely bank holiday weekend has been rounded off today with the

best of the temperatures, a beautiful bank holiday Monday,

another fairly nice day tomorrow, quite breezy but eventually some

sunny spells. Through the day today, temperatures up in the high teens,

but some high cloud advancing from the West courtesy of this frontal

system. That is marching towards us through this evening and the first

part of the night, and then it will give us some rain in the early hours

of tomorrow morning before it makes its way towards the east. Tomorrow

morning, some cloud around, temperatures up in double figures,

the breeze does pick up through the next 24 hours. 17 Celsius with sunny

spells in the afternoon, perhaps 18 in 12 spots. Through the week, we

run the risk of some showers, breezy but sunshine.

That's all for now, I'll be back during the ten o'clock news, but for

now, from everyone here, have a lovely evening. Goodbye.

The sunshine today for the bank holiday produced the highest

temperature of the