0:00:00 > 0:00:01bring in cloud and rain from the West. Back to you, Jane. Thank you.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Good afternoon, I'm Asad Ahmad.
0:00:17 > 0:00:23A primary school in West London is to become the first in England
0:00:23 > 0:00:26to move to a four-and-a-half day week in a bid to save money.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28St Mary's Catholic Primary in Isleworth will stop its classes
0:00:28 > 0:00:29every Friday at lunchtime.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Here's our education reporter, Marc Ashdown.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35Now we all know the school day finishes at about 3.30pm,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38but here things could be about to change.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43Under enormous pressure with their budget, the governors
0:00:43 > 0:00:47have put forward a proposal for a four-and-a-half day week.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52So, every Friday, classes would finish at 12.45,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55they would then lay on private classes run by providers
0:00:55 > 0:00:57which parents would have to pay for,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01but that would only accommodate about 150 of the 400 pupils
0:01:02 > 0:01:04here.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07For the rest of the parents, they have been told to make plans
0:01:07 > 0:01:08for their own childcare as of September.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11The lack of consideration for working parents is quite
0:01:11 > 0:01:15striking to myself and a lot of the other parents.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20So at the moment, that is the main problem, that both the cost for some
0:01:20 > 0:01:23parents and also the logistics of actually who is going to pick up
0:01:23 > 0:01:27the child if both parents work?
0:01:27 > 0:01:35In a letter to parents the school explains that
0:01:35 > 0:01:38over the past five years it made a raft of savings.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40A number of teaching posts have been unfilled
0:01:40 > 0:01:41and some music classes have
0:01:41 > 0:01:44been cancelled and a fund was set up to parents could contribute
0:01:44 > 0:01:46to basics like colours pencils and glue sticks.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49No one from the school wanted to talk to us today.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51The local council says they are working with the school
0:01:51 > 0:01:52at a difficult time.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54The Government also told us, the Department for Education,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56they trust schools to organise their own school weeks,
0:01:56 > 0:01:59the school days to maintain the best educational standards.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01But this is perhaps a sign of the times with heads
0:02:01 > 0:02:03across London saying they are squeezed in their budgets.
0:02:03 > 0:02:11Will they, more of them, consider drastic measures?
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Police investigating the murder of a man in Hackney have released
0:02:14 > 0:02:17CCTV footage of two men they want to trace.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19It shows them walking in the area around the time
0:02:19 > 0:02:20Daniel Frederick was stabbed.
0:02:20 > 0:02:21The 34-year-old was attacked on Shakespeare Walk.
0:02:21 > 0:02:31Two people have already been arrested.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34A council leader who suggested rough sleepers in Windsor be moved-on
0:02:34 > 0:02:35ahead of the royal wedding has survived
0:02:35 > 0:02:38a vote of no-confidence.
0:02:38 > 0:02:39Conservative, Simon Dudley, said beggars could present the town
0:02:39 > 0:02:41in a "sadly unfavourable light" when Prince Harry marries
0:02:42 > 0:02:43Meghan Markle in May.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47He drew criticism from the Prime Minister, but last night
0:02:47 > 0:02:55he survived a motion accusing him of bringing the authority
0:02:55 > 0:03:03into disrepute .
0:03:03 > 0:03:05The first public consultation has started into the expansion
0:03:05 > 0:03:06of Heathrow Airport.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09The airport's owner have put forward a number of ideas for how
0:03:09 > 0:03:10the project could be carried out.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Now to enter a world of microscopic patterns.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16You can't see these with the naked eye -
0:03:16 > 0:03:20this is only possible using powerful tools and technologies.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24It's also what happens when artists and scientists
0:03:24 > 0:03:26at the Francis Crick Institute in King's Cross join together.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Wendy Hurrell has been to have a look.
0:03:30 > 0:03:36Trick patterns abound.I'm listening to a poem inspired by human DNA. It
0:03:36 > 0:03:42is part of an exhibition at the Francis Crick Institute which is a
0:03:42 > 0:03:45place full of laboratories that are studying how and why diseases happen
0:03:45 > 0:03:49in the human body. Some of the patterns the scientists find are
0:03:49 > 0:03:53very beautiful. Almost like works of art themselves. I suppose it makes
0:03:53 > 0:03:58sense to take that one step further. And to explain more is the curator.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02We are looking at skin cell, I think, here.We are. As you come
0:04:02 > 0:04:05into the exhibition you will be encouraged to think about the cells
0:04:05 > 0:04:09inside your body. We are looking at the patterns of the surface of the
0:04:09 > 0:04:13skin and here we are looking at the cells underneath the skin. Some
0:04:13 > 0:04:17scientists did visit studios which was fascinating for them. Got to see
0:04:17 > 0:04:22the process as the artist developed their process and the prototypes.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25There was a lovely exchange between the artists and the scientists in
0:04:25 > 0:04:29this project.By using art and creativity in this way, it will help
0:04:29 > 0:04:34us to see things that normally are too small. Take this little fella.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39This is part of a worm that's one millimetre long. And it is your
0:04:39 > 0:04:43life's work, mate, to study such little things! Tell me what we are
0:04:43 > 0:04:48looking at.We are looking at the earliest stages in the development
0:04:48 > 0:04:51of the worm.You took it a stage further with a workshop for local
0:04:51 > 0:04:55people.My lab and I designed a workshop for students to inspire
0:04:55 > 0:05:01them with the core ideas and development like breaking uformity,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05acquiring identity and it was really nice to see how many core concepts
0:05:05 > 0:05:11showed up in the video.From worms to fruit flies. One of our artists,
0:05:11 > 0:05:17Helen is here. Tell us what this? This is a fly brain, the
0:05:17 > 0:05:20transformations of the fly and the patterns of the visual circuit over
0:05:20 > 0:05:24time.So the patterns that the scientists have found and that the
0:05:24 > 0:05:27artists have reponded to are ones that you will find in your own body
0:05:27 > 0:05:29as well. It is a fascinating exhibition. It opens on Thursday and
0:05:29 > 0:05:32it is free.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36To mark two years since the death of South London legend David Bowie,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40BBC World Service Radio has commissioned a play about his final
0:05:40 > 0:05:43few weeks and the making of his last album, Blackstar.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Comedian and impressionist Jon Culshaw plays Bowie in the drama,
0:05:46 > 0:05:48which was recorded in Acton.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50I spoke to Jon earlier and asked him about how he got
0:05:50 > 0:05:56Bowie's London accent just right.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Yes, the South London sort of reference gets
0:06:00 > 0:06:03you to the initial zone, but then you've really got to just
0:06:03 > 0:06:06listen and listen and listen and the first clip that I looked
0:06:06 > 0:06:10at out of David Bowie's many interviews was the one
0:06:10 > 0:06:20where he gives this wonderful piece of wisdom and he says if you feel
0:06:26 > 0:06:28safe in the area you're working in, you're probably not
0:06:28 > 0:06:29working in the right area.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Always go a little further into the water than you feel
0:06:32 > 0:06:33you're capable of being.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37Go a little bit out of the depth and when you feel your feet aren't
0:06:37 > 0:06:40quite touching the bottom then you're just in the right place to do
0:06:40 > 0:06:41something exciting and that was.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43To hear that clip first, was rather fortuitous because that's
0:06:43 > 0:06:46how it feels to take on the role of the great David Bowie
0:06:47 > 0:06:48in a drama like this.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51As well as taking on the role and getting into his voice,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54you very much had to get his mind and his head and how
0:06:54 > 0:06:55he was thinking.
0:06:55 > 0:06:56Yeah.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59How do you even go about doing that when sadly the man is dead?
0:06:59 > 0:07:02There is so much wonderful material to look at and there
0:07:02 > 0:07:05is the incredible back catalogue of music and many things to read.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07You just have to absorb it all and just get
0:07:07 > 0:07:09into that rhythm of thought.
0:07:09 > 0:07:10Get into that rhythm of his amazing creativity.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Brilliance in the blink of an eye, that's David Bowie.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15Let's just say a producer watching you today, says I know what,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18I want to do a drama about so and so.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20Jon's the man.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Who would you like that so and so to be?
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Who is the one person that you think ah this is the next
0:07:25 > 0:07:27person I'd like to be?
0:07:27 > 0:07:28George Michael perhaps.
0:07:28 > 0:07:29Ah, that's a good one.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33That's a good one.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35I love the way that whenever he would describe something,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38his brows would go like, very thoughtful and very considered,
0:07:38 > 0:07:43a wonderful, charming, amiable, warm chap.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47And you can hear Jon Culshaw in the The Final Take:
0:07:47 > 0:07:48Bowie in the Studio, on BBC World Service Radio
0:07:48 > 0:07:52on the BBC iPlayer Radio.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Now let us check on the weather with Kate.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02Good afternoon. Well, we had a beautiful, but cold start this
0:08:02 > 0:08:06morning. Temperatures overnight in stark contrast to the night before
0:08:06 > 0:08:12down at zero. So we had a bit of frost first thing, but clear skies,
0:08:12 > 0:08:18so a beautiful sunrise. High cloud with hazy sunshine. The spring
0:08:18 > 0:08:20flowers really enjoying the sunshine and they will continue to this
0:08:20 > 0:08:24afternoon. We are hanging on to the sunshine and it is staying dry as
0:08:24 > 0:08:28well. We may get high cloud. The sunshine hazy here and there, but
0:08:28 > 0:08:32the gentle wind. Temperatures getting up to seven or eight
0:08:32 > 0:08:37Celsius. In the sunshine, it is not feeling too bad. Overnight, starting
0:08:37 > 0:08:42off cold under clear skies, but the cloud increases from the west. With
0:08:42 > 0:08:45it outbreaks of rain. Things turning murky for a time. The wind
0:08:45 > 0:08:48strengthens as well as we head through the early hours of tomorrow
0:08:48 > 0:08:53morning. The minimum temperature dropping down to four or five
0:08:53 > 0:08:57Celsius. As you head into tomorrow morning, yes, we've got rain. A
0:08:57 > 0:09:01little bit damp first thing, but it will start to clear. Some really
0:09:01 > 0:09:07nice sunny spells through the afternoon. Quity and that's going to
0:09:07 > 0:09:13make things feel cool. A chilly night Wednesday and into Thursday.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18Should stay dry. Lots of sunshine, a north-westerly so feeling cooler.
0:09:18 > 0:09:24That's it. We're back at 6.30pm. Have a very good afternoon.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30Bye-bye.