17/05/2017 South Today

Financially incompetent and educationally illiterate.

The words of councillors about an education trust running

one game away from the Premier League, as Reading seal

How one couple want their baby's legacy to help

They say they are appalled at their behaviour.

They want them removed from managing schools

These are the extraordinary words used by councillors

They have expressed outrage at plans, by the company

the troubled Sandown Academy - and merge it with another school.

And tonight councillors unanimously supported a motion condemning AET's

Home time in the rain for Janet and her sons.

13-year-old Brennan is already at Sandown Bay Academy.

Ten-year-old Eden starts there in September.

They don't want to go to school six miles away in Ryde.

There's not enough capacity at Ryde school to incorporate all those that

There's just not going to be enough space and when the birth rate goes

up again in a couple of years, as we know it will, there's just not

going to be enough space on the whole island.

This protest was organised by concerned parents

The school is run by the Academies Enterprise Trust or AET -

the biggest academy chain in England.

It says its budget's been squeezed because they're paid

based on pupil numbers, which have been falling.

It wants to merge with another school it runs in Ryde.

But locals, and tonight the council, say it's got its sums wrong.

We want to send a very clear message to AET, to the Minister

and to the Schools Commissioner that we want AET out

of Sandown high school, out of the academy and preferably

AET have demonstrated themselves to be financially incompetent

and educationally illiterate in the way they have handled events

Standards have dropped because AET have cut the budget

They have also done a pupil projection which is flawed.

They based their pupil projection on the drop

What they should have done their projection

on is the number of actual children in the local primary schools,

who make the school more than sustainable if it

The figures that we have used are those that the

Now, when we met the council last week, they did say

that they would send us their figures.

I haven't yet seen those, but based on that discussion,

the small increase that they are projecting among current primary

school pupils still wouldn't go anywhere near fulfilling the massive

overcapacity there currently is at secondary school level.

Tonight the council voted to try and stop AET running any

schools on the Island, and find a way to keep Sandown open.

AET says it is starting a consultation next week to allow

people to have their say on the plans.

Reading Football Club are on their way to Wembley

after a dramatic match last night against Fulham.

There were dramatic deals being done behind the scenes too.

As two Chinese property tycoons - brother and sister Dai

Yongge and Dai Xiu Li - became the majority

They made their fortune from converting old air raid

The new owners are looking to build - with a new training ground

and increased stadium capacity already mentioned.

Trying to complete a deal in the second half is a first

I have to say I'm very excited about the new owners coming in.

I think, you know, we need to get the impetus again and, you know,

A soldier from Tidworth in Wiltshire has pleaded guilty

to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

Private Samuel Dallow thought he was meeting up with a 14 year

old girl but it turned out to be self styled Paedophile

Private Samuel Dallow thought he was meeting up with

a 14 year old girl but it turned out to be

self styled paedophile-hunter Shane Brannigan.

It was streamed and Dallow was handed over to police.

Train drivers on Southern Railway will start an overtime ban

from the end of May, unless their long-running dispute

over driver-controlled operation is resolved.

Drivers have twice rejected a deal negotiated by their union ASLEF,

and the two sides have been holding discussions for more than a month.

Southern says it runs 80,000 trains a month

It warns that an overtime ban would lead to substantial disruption

Jo Meeke and Matt Gurney spent just a few hours with their newborn child

- who they had nicknamed Puck - before he died.

The couple, from West Sussex say they have taken comfort in some

of the beautiful countryside in the South.

They've now set up "Puck's Promise - raising funds to buy a woodland

so that other bereaved families will have a place to

Anjana Gadgil met them on the South Downs.

Joe and Matt's baby lived for just 13 hours.

Severe complication during labour led to an emergency Caesarean

and the little boy they had affectionately named Puck wasn't

Obviously, you know, we'd been through labour,

he'd been born and resuscitated and, you know, to find ourselves

being transferred to Southampton neonatal unit and looking

at our little boy who was, you know, he was a stocky

eight-pound eight baby boy, lying in a crib in one

of the neonatal nurseries and you just think, how's our son

When it was clear Puck wouldn't survive, they had 30

I said to the nurses, if there is an opportunity for me

to just have some skin on skin, I would love to do it and so I feel

privileged in that respect, that I did have half

The couple held a farewell service with family and friends in the woods

They found comfort in nature and that's why they set up

Puck's Promise, raising funds to buy a woodland for other

We know that we've got a long journey ahead of us dealing

We think it's really important to have that space that people can

go to for years to come and, you know, deal with the grieving

process in an environment that is totally unique, hopefully.

I'd like primarily families who have lost children in some way

to be able to use it, either as going just for a couple

of hours, for a quick walk, or maybe occasionally

for an overnight camp to be with other people who've been

Jo and Matt return to the woods to lay flowers for their son,

hoping something positive can grow from their personal tragedy.

Very few people got to meet him and it was my fear that he would

And I think that's why I feel Puck's Promise

and our fundraising is so important, because we know that through this,

we are going to keep the memory of Puck alive.

Stillbirth is classified as a baby dying from 24 weeks

In this country, 15 babies a day are either stillborn or die

The rate is falling but remains higher than in other high income

I spoke to Jane Brewin from the charity Tommy's which funds

I asked her why the UK was still lagging behind.

The UK ranks 24th out of 49 high income countries,

so as you say, we are nowhere near the best out there.

I think other countries that are doing better than us have just

instigated more campaigns and programmes and focused much more

So what more can be done to reduce those rates still further?

The first is investing in research to find out who is most at risk

and how to care for women who are at risk of stillbirth.

And that's why Tommy's are funding a research centre in Manchester

And the other big area of work is around how the NHS care for women

during pregnancy and so the NHS have launched a four

point plan which is being tested at the moment around the UK,

to identify for many areas the NHS needs to work on to reduce

the incidence of stillbirth in the UK.

Finally, the couple I spoke to are raising money to buy woodland

What support is there out there for bereaved parents?

Well, at the time of the stillbirth and in the immediate aftermath,

there is very good support normally provided by hospitals.

And then after that there are organisations out there that

specialise in bereavement and also organisations like Tommy's who can

offer bereavement support, but also a lot of information

and support through subsequent pregnancies.

Football, and Southampton played Manchester United

in their penultimate home game of the Premier League season.

Saints should have gone ahead within five minutes

after they were awarded a penalty for handball - but Manolo

Gabbiadini's spot kick was saved by United goalkeeper Sergio Romero.

Saints created several chances in the second half -

James Ward Prowse forcing another good save before Antony Martial

It ended goalless and Saints remain in 8th.

That's all from the South Today news team this evening.

We're back tomorrow with bulletins in BBC Breakfast and there's more

Here is our regional weather forecast.

We had over an inch of rain fall in many places today.

The rain will clear away overnight a night and will

In our towns and cities, a low of 9-10 degrees.

A little more cloud for eastern part, be generally clear skies.

A very slim chance of the odd isolated shower

Even the chance of the rumble of thunder and some hail.

Temperatures tomorrow will reach a high of 17 degrees.

Pleasantly warm in any sunny spells tomorrow.

Friday and Saturday, there is a chance of the odd

showers. But it will be a bit warmer.

Before today, many gardeners were crying out for rain. Some of the

those garden may now be water logged. And Lincolnshire was one of

wettest places with 40 millimetres. That is nearly a month's worth of

rain in 24 hours. Some difficult travelling conditions. Some parts of

north-west England stayed dry. This was the main rain-maker. It is

pulling away. Tomorrow a day sunshine and showers and that

freshing feeling air will filter into those parts that were muggy

today. It was 25 Celsius in Kent. A different feel, but still