10/03/2017 London News

Good evening, I'm Asad Ahmad. for the news where you are.

Teachers at one of London's top academies have told BBC London

they worked in a "climate of intimidation and fear"

and witnessed coursework being "falsely marked."

Last month, we reported that the head teacher

at Green Spring Academy, in Shoreditch, was among several

The Trust investigated and says "appropriate action

is now being taken", although they say they can't

Here's our education correspondent, Marc Ashdown.

It's the question at the heart of this investigation -

within a couple of years, how could a failing school become

outstanding so quickly and GCSE results go through the roof?

They were in difficulties and feeling the pressure...

John is now retired, but worked at the school for many years.

It started, he says, with a clear out of very experienced staff.

You know, they would come into work one morning and, presumably,

they were asked to leave, or they were asked to hand

their keys in and they were escorted from the premises.

And this happened to a large number of people, at least ten

I mean, obviously, it gave a climate of intimidation and fear,

He claims behind it all was a relentless drive

to improve results by any means, even cheating.

Everything was geared towards exams and it really didn't matter

Whether by genuinely taking the exams or, on a few occasions,

A teacher awarding a pass mark to a student who hasn't

We've been contacted by about half a dozen people who've taught

They all paint a very similar picture.

They claim often very experienced teachers have

either been forced out or, because of their treatment,

have been left with no choice but to leave.

Meanwhile, GCSE results went from being among the worst

The Academy hit the headlines in 2015 when three pupils fled

to Syria to join so-called Islamic State.

And our thoughts are with the families of the missing

The executive head teacher, Mark Keary, was praised

The school kept its outstanding Ofsted rating.

But last month he was suspended, along with three senior

members of staff, as part of an investigation

The Department for Education told us "there is no place for cheating

in schools and exam malpractice is extremely rare.

Following this investigation, exam malpractice has been

identified," they say, "resulting in disciplinary action."

Green Spring Education Trust said the independent

Appropriate action is being taken, which cannot be discussed

They believe they've acted robustly and with integrity.

We did approach Mark Keary for a comment,

A man has been jailed for three years after unintentionally

killing his friend with a single punch after his shoe was thrown

Alexander Thomson, from Clapham, hit Tom Hume in a drunken row

in August as they travelled in a mini-cab on Farringdon

Mr Hume died the next day of a brain haemorrhage.

The number of fires in prisons in London has reached record levels.

Figures show Thameside Prison recorded the most fires of any jail

in the country last year, with over 100.

The Ministry of Justice says most were "relatively minor."

Critics say the figures highlight how "unstable prisons have become."

A female victim of a sexual assault on the Tube has waived her right

to anonymity to raise awareness of a crime which most

Last year, Jessica Brady was travelling on the Northern Line

and didn't realise that what had just happened to her

She's been speaking to Sarah Harris.

Using the Tube was all part of the excitement of moving

to London for Jess, her jigsaw puzzle shows all the lines

But it ended in turmoil on a late-night journey home

on the Northern Line, when a man groped her several times,

It caught me off guard, I think, and it frightened me and I went

into shock because the only way I can describe it is thinking,

And it was the flight mode, probably.

I didn't want to bring attention to the scene.

I just thought, if he has a knife, he could attack me further,

And I just needed to get out of there.

I'd like to report being sexually harassed on the Tube.

This film is part of a new campaign by TfL and the police,

showing how seriously the offence is being taken.

What this film shows is every piece of information that comes

into the police is taken seriously, it aids an investigation

and it helps build up a picture of offenders,

We really want to encourage people to come forward and report this kind

of offensive behaviour and criminality to us.

The message we're trying to get out today is that every single report

we receive builds a picture and with those initial reports

we can start an investigation, people will be taken seriously.

It gives us the best opportunity to catch offenders.

Because of CCTV there's been a significant increase in arrests

for sexual harrassment on the Tube since 2014.

But the rise in reported instances has been even higher.

Officers say they're still relying on women like Jess,

It wasn't about getting justice for me, it was about making sure

that he couldn't do that to somebody else or potentially worse and,

if anything, I encourage people to try and think of it like that.

Jess prefers to walk these days, but after identifying her attacker

she watched in court as he was given a six-month jail sentence.

That's it for now from me, but let's find out what

Mild today? Set to stay so for the weekend and into next week.

Overnight will be cloudy. That will blanket in temperatures,

temperatures not falling below nine or ten degrees. To will start off

grey and stay mild. There will be good spells of sunshine as we head

throughlet course of the afternoon. That grey start, light winds from

the south. Dryer air moving off the near continent. The clouds will

break up. When we see the sunshine temperatures will push up to 16 or

17 Celsius. Very pleasant indeed. Saturday evening will also be dry

and fine. Sunday weather fronts come streaming in from the west. Sunday

is looking pretty wet to start with. Heavy rain around. That should clear

but I think it will never really clear the region throughout the

afternoon. Temperatures cool because of the cloud and rain. Saturday the

better day of the two. Next week it will be mild with sunshine as well.