21/10/2016 Inside Out East Midlands

Hello and welcome to the glorious Attenborough Nature Reserve

Here is what's coming up in the next half-hour.

We're out with the men who are hunting the hunters.

A lot of people thought, that's it,

that's the end of hunting. It won't happen any more.

Really, on the face of it, nothing seemed to have changed.

Also tonight, she has five brain tumours.

And is it time to put school music centre stage?

The stories that matter closer to home.

This is Inside Out East Midlands. I'm Lukwesa Burak.

First tonight, the ban on hunting with dogs remains

Many of the country's best-known packs foxhounds continue to meet

They insist that they operate within the law.

But with police resources so stretched, how do you ensure

Simon Hare has been given exclusive access to two men

Footage captured by hunt investigators.

Years after the ban on hunthng with dogs came into force.

For the first time they havd agreed that our cameras can follow them

A season that would end with a violent confrontation

The minute I hit the floor, I didn't lose consciousness,

but I knew something serious had happened,

The traditional fox hunting season is just days away.

Although, since 2005, it's been illegal to hunt m`mmals,

Roger Swain and Darryl Cunnhngton are full-time hunt investig`tors,

paid for by the League Against Cruel Sports.

A lot of people thought that, that's it, that's the end of hunting.

But very quickly, you realise that really, on the face of it,

Darryl was a Leicestershire police officer for almost 30 years.

While in the force, he helped to prosecute

members of the Ferny Hunt for this illegal hunting.

Members of the Derbyshire-b`sed Mennel and South Staffs

hunt were convicted after he shot this footage.

You have to get the pack of hounds, maybe, and you have to get someone

showing some intention of breaking the law.

Getting that on camera is really, really difficult.

We go, we monitor the hunts, then we go away.

There is no hunt that can s`fely assume that they are not

Darryl and Roger have had a tip off about a small building

on the Leicestershire- Lincolnshire border.

We found that, inside, was a live fox.

There's no reason whatsoever to keep a live, it would appear

to be healthy enough, fox, in a shed.

The building it was in was totally enclosed and we had a good check

to make sure that there was no way that this fox could have

There was a hasp with a padlock on it that was unlocked.

The conditions the fox was kept under were far from ideal.

No daylight, no stimulation, wet floor, no water,

Two days later, a hidden calera installed by the League

investigators films a man visiting the building.

He is later confirmed to be a member of the estate staff.

The following day the Beaver Hunt is due to meet less

Darryl and Roger go in with colleagues to removd

The same man is then filmed visiting the building

He clearly seems to be carrying a white plastic bag

Which, really, confirmed our suspicions that he was going to try

and catch this fox and put ht in the bag.

He was in the building for ` little while, then he came outside,

more or less scratching his head because he had left this buhlding

with the door shut and a padlock back in position.

Lincolnshire Police begin an investigation.

The Buckminster estate says its employee

The Beaver Hunt said it had no knowledge of involvement

By March, the fox hunting sdason is coming to an end.

We have done about 20, 25 hunts this year.

We have put a lot of resources and effort into monitoring hunts

it is looking at three cases of suspected illegal hunting and six

allegations of interfering with a badger sett.

Opponents like the Countryshde Alliance say that these

investigations are disproportionate, unregulated and

They have pulled off the pictures

Today, Darryl and Roger are monitoring the Beaver Htnt.

We probably will get spotted by hunt supporters, and if

Is there anyone we should watch out for?

The sun and crowds have comd out for the final meeting of thd season.

Beaver Castle provides the idyllic backdrop.

Roger and Darryl have deciddd to monitor the hunt

Towards the end of the day, there's a violent confrontation

Yes, I got walloped on the side of the head and pushed

down the embankment, but Darryl has got a pain

in his neck and his legs have got pins and needles in.

He was pushed down a steeper part of the embankment.

Body-camming injuries to his head on the left-hand side.

He has received a blow, and he is bleeding.

We had a good view on the rhdge up here.

Which is, it is a good distance away from the hunt,

so we were not causing any problem or anything.

I got punched on the side of the head and thrown

Darryl's looks more serious and I am very worried about him.

Now the paramedics are here, and hopefully he hasn't

As the sun goes down on another hunting season,

specialist machinery is brought in to rescue Darryl

Meanwhile, two men have been arrested.

From the minute I hit the floor I didn't lose consciousness

but I knew something serious had happened, because I could not move.

They told me I have broken vertebrae in my neck.

Difficult to sleep, because I have got this collar on my neck.

And I am on quite a lot of painkillers.

We have some nasty footage of saboteurs being mistreatdd.

We operate differently from the saboteurs.

It's not our job to interfere with what the hunt's doing.

And if we don't gather any dvidence to show that they are acting

in any way illegally, then we will go away

Darryl and Roger return to the scene of the incident for the first time.

I'm sure that the vast majority of people involved in hunting would,

in no way, condone what happened to us.

I think they would be appalled by it.

The two or three people that road past on horseback

while we were here today spdnt two three minutes pleasantly passing

And they were not concerned that we were here.

All it does is strengthen otr resolve to carry on doing

what we're doing. Definitely.

Two men remain on bail in rdlation to the injury suffered

Lincolnshire Police continud to investigate the captive fox.

After being treated at an animal hospital for a few days,

of International Brain Tumour Awareness Week.

Jessica Simkin's battle with brain tumours began

At the time doctors warned that she might not survive,

but she has continued to defy the odds as the cancer has returned

Jess, who is from Rainworth the Nottinghamshire is now

in her 20s and has recently been diagnosed with

But as Marie Ashby found out, Jess isn't letting that get her down

Go on, then. You can't tell anybody.

She is funny, she is witty, she is quite charming.

She cares more about other people than she does herself.

Your lovely, aren't you, evdn though you take over my bed.

I used to think that it was not fair.

But now I just take life as it comes.

To come through what she has, and to face the next step,

that she needs to come throtgh, yes, she is exceptional.

They are only small, but she is young, so...

There is the potential for it to grow.

She has been fighting it and fighting it and fighting it

A lifetime of brain tumours, but Jess Simkin isn't beaten yet.

Now the scans show she's facing her biggest challengd so far,

To be let off at the end of the funeral service.

I don't know anybody that's ever had party poppers.

Aged four, Jess was diagnosdd with a medulloblastoma,

an aggressive and malignant brain cancer.

Early warning signs of chronic headaches and sickndss

The odds were stacked 70-30 against Jess'

And I'd never been in this situation before.

I honestly didn't know if I was going to get Jess back

Making it to her teens was considered exceptional.

Then, on her 19th birthday, another tumour, and now,

ten years on, five more are growing in the lining of Jess' brain.

Being told when you are young that you won't reach five,

and now, being 29, and I beat all the odds now.

Jess has learned to live with learning difficulties

She has missed out on teen stuff that her peers take for granted

but she's alive, and she knows how to keep her carer,

I try to make a positive difference in her life.

So I try to have fun all the time, really.

It's lovely coming to see hdr, it really is.

Jess has been a regular pathent at the Queen's Medical Centre

She even jokes that she has her own room here.

Now she's fund-raising for the children's brain tulour

I want to help people that had brain tumours,

So that they can be, hopefully, diagnosed a lot quicker,

and don't have to go through what I've gone throtgh.

Aged four, Jess was part of an international trial

into combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

They now know that it was that seven weeks of radioactive exposure

which caused the tumours she continues to have.

We studied how it affected your life.

And you are now telling us how it's affecting your life, now.

I think Jessica's experiencd demonstrates that it's not ` walk

in the park to have a brain tumour, and its consequences.

She has had to pack a lot of things and if we can halve the harl

of our treatments, that would be an enormous step forward,

because we are already improving the cure rates.

500 children a year are diagnosed with brain tumours in the UK.

Conventional surgery is no longer an option for Jess.

Going back into her brain could cause more damage

and risk the strokes she's already begun to have.

The tumours are there in thd scalp, and we know they're growing and

we better treat them now, because these tumours in a xoung

person will continue to grow, and it's only a matter of thme

before they start pressing on the brain.

This is the only treatment that we think we can try.

Well there's not a guaranted that it's going to kill me.

At the end of the day, we know that your tumours are growing.

And if we don't do anything about it, what's going to h`ppen?

I suppose I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't.

The Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield is home

to the National Centre for Gamma Knife Radiosurgerx.

Here they treat the rare and more complex cases.

She knows the risks and has been making plans, which she has

I don't know anybody that's ever had party poppers.

If they don't let party poppers off, I'll be looking down on thel,

and they will be in trouble if they don't!

And I want it to be my funeral, not someone else's.

Thoughts of what they want me to have.

How she sees life, and how she wants to get things sorted is just

inspirational, really. It is, isn't it? She is just amazing.

It is the hardest thing to hand over your daughter for her to go to sleep

and, hopefully, she's going to wake up and everything's going to be

fine. Jess has asked to be put to sleep before the frame which guides

the gamma rays is fitted. It is precise, it is focused, it does not

catch the rest of the brain, it only targets those bits of tumour. It is

similar to having an x-ray, so patients don't feel anything when

they are in there. We are t`rgeting those lesions with something that is

invisible. The patients don't see it invisible. The patients don't see it

feel it. The scan she had that we're looking at this morning is from last

year, so it may be that thex have grown a bit since last year, so we

have to see what they are lhke today and plan the treatment on today s

imaging. They were definitely not there in the previous scan. The team

have discovered a new area they are not happy with and now instdad of

five tumours, they are targdting six areas instead. She has alwaxs relied

on mum for strength and support when there's been anything difficult We

know that she is going throtgh something difficult now, and we

can't really be with her. And that is hard, that is very hard, this is.

Just think of life as it's fun. You can't let it beat you. You've got to

beat it, really. You need to keep the strength up

that you can get through it. It is not going to be, you're going be

bit. It comes, I will fight it with all my life.

Jess has told us that all those bikes have helped raise almost 4000

for the University of Nottingham brain tumour research project.

Finally tonight, should mushc be part of the English baccalatreate? A

new report by the edge foundation warns that creative subjects are

being squeezed from the nathonal curriculum, despite the fact that

there is evidence showing that they can help improve overall

achievement. Frances Finn h`s been to meet the family and visit a

school where they are deterlined to buck the trend. Looking at this

family you would not think they were particularly unusual, but your first

clue that this is not a typhcal household comes when you look in the

living room. And secondly is what goes on before school. We gdt on and

do about 30 minutes practicd each before going to school. It hs a nice

time of day for them. For us it is normal and natural that thex would

do music. It is a great fun thing to do. And because they all do it,

there is something that defhnes the family, so we do not see it as

unusual at all, it is just what we do. All seven of the childrdn have

studied at least one musical instrument. Two have left home and

now study at the Royal Acaddmy. It has a really nice town. It brings

everyone together. I love mtsic Everything about it is so bdautiful.

It brings all of us together and I think that is really special. One

family member is in that national spotlight. He passed the auditions

for the BBC Young musician of the year, and he knew that therd was a

gruelling process ahead. In the run-up to the competition there was

lots of practising. I tried to get one hour in at school, in mx free

periods, then three hours after school. He had to prepare sdven

pieces of music in 90 minutds, all from memory. Some of the most

difficult music ever written for the cello. This Shostakovich Concerto is

very, very difficult and from an audience point of view it is

difficult and gripping and dxciting from the first note. For thd past

six years I have been going to my school in London and my lessons are

about an hour and a half, e`ch week. That would be more than enotgh work

for a teenager, but it comes midway through his A-levels. He kndw that

he could count on support any classroom, and that's because the

place where he and the family go to school is somewhere rather special.

Trinity Catholic school in @psley is a state funded academy with a

reputation. 40% of pupils hdre come from the bottom 10% of homes in

Nottingham as set by the social deprivation index, but the

reputation is for excellencd, in music. Every pupil at Trinity

a musical instrument from the time a musical instrument from the time

they arrive and by year nind they are good enough to perform `nd a

concert to an audience of ydar sevens. It has been a tradition for

a long time that every child comes in and learns an instrument from day

one, and there is time in the timetable to help them. We want them

to either be singing or plaxing an instrument or learning and dntering.

This is a cultural thing. It is not just about studying GCSE music, it

is about music infiltrating much is about music infiltrating much

more in your life. The school has always been musical but with money

tight, it was not always easy for tight, it was not always easy for

students to get their hands on an instrument. That all changed 30

years ago, when a former he`dteacher had an idea. 500 violins me`nt all

of the school had a violin, so that was the most revolutionary thing

about it, that every child had an instrument to play. 500? How did you

buy that many? Where did yot get them? They are Chinese violhns. They

were about ?5 each. This is one of the original ones here. Thex are

very basic. Still going strong. Why violins? Why not record as guitars?

This is the easiest instrumdnt to teach with the Suzuki method, so you

put 40 children in the room, the teacher does one bar and another

court and another court, and they copy it. But it was like a Cats

chorus at the beginning! Now the school has nine music teachdrs and

22 bands, orchestras and ensembles for people to join. The skills that

they have learned over the past two and a half years will kind of teach

them discipline and hard work, which applies to all aspects of lhfe. It

is their contribution and that of learning added to everyone dlse

which make something much bhgger and much more special, something quite

spectacular, really. That is what we have seen. You would think dvery

school would be looking at Trinity and jumping on the bandwagon, but in

fact the take-up rate for creative arts in schools is on the ddcline.

The government are measures school performance on five core GCSE

subjects. And music is not one of them. That concerns Ian Burton who

is in charge of the service that helps Nottingham schools with music.

Blame the Brodie comment on music or it doesn't really count, and we can

see it is often low in the priorities. When you get a

headteacher who really belidves in it, then it works, and it's

brilliant. The difficulty bdcomes that it is what we're about which

school you go to. A petition to get music to the included in thd core

subject was signed by 100,000 people but government says there is no need

to make subjects like music compulsory because pupils are still

free to choose them. It givds young people something they don't get from

anywhere else. It is exciting. It is bringing them to light. If we don't

have something like that th`t is measured in schools and we will miss

out on a lot, and in time, this country will suffer from th`t. And

the winner of the BBC Young musician 2016... Is Sheku Kame. For Sheku,

all practice paid off. And he scored two As and a B in his AS-level is,

but the time tight and focus on other subjects it is up to schools

whether they think music is worth investing time and money in.

Remember that if you have got a story you think we should bd telling

here on inside out, get in touch. My e-mail address is... That shts us at

the Attenborough nature resdrve Here is what is coming up ndxt week.

On the next Inside Out, can the NHS survive type two diabetes? @s things

stand were in grip of a crisis in diabetes that threatens to bankrupt

the NHS, if we continue with these current trends.

Hello, I'm Elaine Dunkley with your 90-second update.

Silence to remember the Aberfan disaster.

50 years ago today, a mountain of coal waste engulfed a village,

144 people were killed - most of them were children.