head has been great. i think all round he is one of the best. johnny sexton and rob kearney are set to play in ireland's six nations game against france on saturday after taking a full part in training on tuesday. sexton missed the games against scotland and italy with a calf strain but is now available for selection. the leinster fly—half is expected to be named ahead of ulster‘s paddy jackson, who started both those matches. laura muir will go for double gold medal at next month's european indoor championships in belgrade as part of a 31—strong british athletics team. muir has been in great form this year, setting a new british indoor record in the 1000m in birmingham on saturday where she took a second off dame kelly holmes previous record. the 23—year—old scott will race in the 1,500m and 3,000m. cheltenham gold cup favourite thistlecrack has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a slight tendon tear. his trainer colin tizzard said the injury was discovered this morning when he was scanned.

there'll be more sport here on bbc news throughout the evening. mps are calling on the government to take urgent steps to address what they call "significant teacher shortages" in england. figures last year showed that almost a third of new teachers who had started jobs in english state schools in 2010 had left within five years. the education select committee has called on the government to find ways of making teaching more attractive and to stop people leaving the profession. with me now is charles tracy, who's the head of education at the institute of physics. he gave evidence to the committee for their report. what do you think needs to be done to get these kind of teachers into the profession and

keep them there. much of it is covered in the report which is an excellent report. the most important thing is it values teachers and that is one way to keep them in the profession, showed that the system and headteachers value them. and keeping them in teaching, part of thatis keeping them in teaching, part of that is to make them feel like professionals, provide them with opportunities for professional development and give them an entitlement to professional development. help them get better at theirjobs. why do we have this shortage in particular in maths and science, do you think? the shortage of physics goes back to recruitment in the early 1990s which was below what it ought to be. at that time there was the development ofa that time there was the development of a subject called science and schools could recruit science rather than physics teachers so we lost physics teachers, around 350

recorded on average were needed to be more like 700. and it has to be said in 2011 the government at the time, the coalition, they set a separate target for physics. visit —— previously there had been assigned target and that has been an improvement since then, the average in the last five years has been way above the average for that. last year was a record 860. but the challenge now is to keep them. so recruitment has improved, now we, the system, need to keep teachers in. people might sayjust pay them more, pay them so much that it is attractive and you can get them and keep them in the profession. that would be good as well however the research shows it is not the money thatis research shows it is not the money that is putting them off. it is the workload outside of teaching. so the teaching workload is the same as the average for comparative countries

but the workload outside of teaching is what tends to put them off. the report said that perhaps the cap in the number of hours that teachers had to work. would that help? i'm not sure that it would. teachers are committed to the job and so they would not stick to it if there was a cap. they would work beyond the hours. and of course most teachers will be happy to work beyond the hours if it makes the learning of children better. what they are not so children better. what they are not so content with is administrative tasks, inspections, preparing for inspections which they do not feel are inspections which they do not feel a re necessary inspections which they do not feel are necessary and are not improving the learning of the children in their care. to our nearest economic rivals if you like have similar problems in keeping and attracting maths and science teachers, countries like france or germany, spain or italy? recruitment is very different across the european nations. germany has a completely

different teaching system so it is not a good comparison. but retention, i'm afraid that we are towards the bottom of the time that teachers stay in. and economically long—term bet is a problem because we need education and science and maths for the economy. it is a priority investment. this is our future we are talking about, the children being educated today will be those paying our pensions when we retire. thank you very much for coming in. eight years after it was criticised by health inspectors for not having enough beds, operating theatres or trained staff, birmingham children's hospital has become the first of its kind to be rated outstanding. the specialist hospital has been praised for turning its fortunes around. our health correspondent jane dreaper reports. a mother's tender touch. connor's just seven months old, and recovering in intensive care from a liver transplant. home is 50 miles away,

so connor's older brother, james, has changed school. give him a kiss. it is a tough time for the whole family, but they are still supported by the staff in birmingham. we have nearly lost him several times over the last six weeks of being here. we have come really close. without them, we would not have a child who is laying in this bed. while he is quite poorly, we have got him and he is here. we have every faith we will get to take him home. that is the only ask as a parent of a sick child. this is the play and admissions centre, designed to distract and relax young patients before their treatment. inspectors have been impressed with the hospital's caring approach. this hospital has come a long way since it was criticised by inspectors eight years ago. back then, a report found a shortage of beds and poor training and care. paying much closer attention to the views of patients and staff

and acting on their ideas has helped change the culture in birmingham and encouraged better teamwork. eight years ago we were in an organisation that certainly was not listening to our staff, not listening to what children, young people and families were saying, and was in a really difficult place. through focusing on those areas of patient engagement, staff engagement, we have now got to a position where we are outstanding. some of the children in outpatients need repeated appointments. so it's vital they feel comfortable. i was with a doctor a couple of weeks ago and it wasn't scary or anything, it was very relaxed. he actually helped me. i felt confident. is it scary when you come here, or do you feel 0k about it? i feel 0k about it. the emotional support given to bereaved parents has also been praised in today's report.

and they will now be able to use this new room when they are going through the worst of times. rachel helped raise thousands of pounds for the unit after the death of her older daughter from kidney cancer. when you're giving used like that you feel you cannot breathe sometimes, you need fresh air, that you need to absorb information that is being told to you. and there was not that opportunity within the existing building at birmingham at that time. just to be ourselves as a family and be together. the staff here believe they can improve care even further, but today is a huge moment in showing how this hospital has turned a corner. jane dreaper, bbc news, birmingham. a team of british soldiers is hoping to become the first all—female group to cross antarctica unsupported. during a 3—month expedition

they'll face temperatures of minus a0 degrees — and they'll be walking in that for up to 9 hours a day. 0ur reporter phil mackie joined them for some of their training, in norway. the ice maiden team is heading out across a frozen norwegian lake at the start of its final training exercise. in september, these soldiers will begin their historicjourney, hoping they will succeed and inspire a generation of women. it's not just about five women crossing antarctica, it's about encouraging women from across the military but also in civilian life to get out there and give things a go, and realise there is no ceiling and you can achieve anything. i think we can inspire some women to get out there and be physically active. it doesn't have to be antarctica. their 5k can be their antarctica. we're just going to have... 0oh, it's hot chocolate with orange today! their home for the next few weeks and the 80 days of the expedition will be a small tent. it will be a bedroom, living room and kitchen. hi, mum.

hi, dad. there are doctors, a former teacher, and an electrical technician on the team. i'm just a normal person from newcastle and i have just happened to come across this incredible opportunity. if you want it and work for it, you canjust do it. they will leave their families and partners behind to spend nearly three months together on the ice. there is important research being done as well. no one really knows what it will take to sustain an all—female team on a journey like this. it's not just about the calories. it's about the actual composition of the rations — making sure there is the right amount of carbohydrate, fat and protein — and trying to figure out how we can manipulate that, i suppose. and also for a group of women whose nutritional requirements are quite different to men, there has been very little research done and certainly not published. so i haven't really got a lot to go on. one of the hardest things will be maintaining morale as each long day's march goes by.

well, they have just been out for a two—hour march. they will have to do up to nine hours a day once in the antarctic, carrying everything that they need along with them. it will be very, very tough, which is why they need to practise in conditions as harsh as these. there are seven ice maidens. two will be reserves as only five can cross the antarctic, where they hope to break the ice ceiling, putting them in the history books alongside explorers like scott. s ha ckleto n shackleton and amundsen. a little milder than that here, let's ta ke a little milder than that here, let's take a look at the weather prospects. for some of you the weather will be a little closer to norway this week than we have been so far. we started with the spring warmth, 18 celsius

yesterday but by the end of the week temperatures take a bit of a plummet. and to get us there we have stormy weather on the way as well. even tonight it turns blowing across the uk, the strongest of the wind just to the north of the uk. we could still the severe gales across the north of scotland during the night. we have heavy rain around at the moment in the north, that will move down to parts of north wales and the north midlands by the end of the night. staying cloudy further south and rain on and off throughout. but temperatures still in double figures. so we have a split across the uk tomorrow, for wales, the midlands, southern england staying cloudy, misting in the hills. some persistent drizzle. but temperatures holding up. north

of that, sunshine on and off date and those severe gale force winds tempering the field that day. but some sunshine from any. then through tomorrow night, this rain arrives and we have a developing area of stormy weather. storm door is in fa ct, stormy weather. storm door is in fact, the fourth named storm by the met office and with that some potential disruption. dealing with the window first of all, and amber be prepared warning has been issued for some areas. at the moment we will see some strong winds during the second part of the date in particular. up to 80 miles an hour around the hills and the coasts. the exact position of that could change approaching thursday. then we also have snowfall, a good covering and still the chance of snow at lower levels across the central belt of

scotla nd levels across the central belt of scotland on thursday morning. a lot of what whether to begin with thursday as a whole. hill snow into the afternoon and staying windy to the afternoon and staying windy to the second part of the day. but sunshine coming out to finish the date for many. but appealing substantially colder. goodbye now. hello and welcome to 100 days... more illegal immigrants in the us face the threat of deportation, the white house says it is empowering anyone so that they can remove anybody convicted of even minor offences. there have been raids across us cities in recent days. the number facing deportation is much greater. attacks onjewish centers are "horrible" — mr trump speaks out against a series of anti—semitic threats across america. a very sad reminder of the work that

must be done to root out hate, prejudice and evil. meet the new national security adviser to the president. we'll speak to a close friend and former commander of coalition forces about lieutenant general mcmaster.