and 75 years after the official end of world war ii, huw edwards retraces his grandfather's footsteps back to a prisoner of war camp. and coming up in sport on bbc news... the latest from the us open, as andy murray returns to grand slam action for the first time since january last year. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. preparations are under way at schools in england to welcome back pupils after nearly six months out of the classroom. the education secretary gavin williamson, speaking in the commons, said students were returning to a safe environment and said the re—opening of schools was a "massive milestone" after the closure of classrooms during lockdown. teachers returned today with most children due back tomorrow, thursday and friday. here's our education editor bra nwen jeffreys. ki rsty kirsty is getting ready for the new term, to welcome her class back to lessons and sending her own son back to his school. as a teacher and pa rent to his school. as a teacher and parent i am really happy for my son to return. he is really excited to see his friends and just get

huw edwards tells the story of his grandfather, who served with the atlantic convoys. story begins in the tiny seaside village of llanddewi aberarth on the coastline of ceredigion. this is where i'd come to visit my grandparents and this is the little house where they lived. nothing much has changed in the main street. and you can see the house in the background to this family photo, which was taken after the war and my grandfather's return after four years away. he'd gone to sea in the first instance at the age 01:14 in 1920. it was the natural thing to do for the boys in the village. but, as he told me many years later, never could he have imagined that that first voyage as a merchant seaman would lead, eventually, to three years in a german prisoner of war camp. newsreel: this is a story of the men who brave the dangers of the sea to bring us our daily bread. the men of the merchant navy faced terrifying danger as they kept britain supplied with food and raw materials. all too often, they were easy targets for the german battleships and u—boats. the u—boats used to

taking pay cuts, the likes of jeremy particularly men taking pay cuts, the likes ofjeremy vine and huw edwardss at a time of tremendous economic hardship with lots of people being made redundant or being on furlough and a lot of people will be shocked that some people have got pay rises. hence the difficult questions. the overall gender pay gap which the bbc aims to eliminate is still 6.3%, thatis aims to eliminate is still 6.3%, that is better than the rest of the industry but it will not be eliminated. 0n gary lineker, he is the top paid in terms of the figures we have got but he has taken this pay cut which means that in the figures next year, the top pay is likely to go to zoe ball but despite all of this complexity and progress on bame staff, a number in the less, it is 18% up from three years ago, fundamentally these are big salaries and some pay rises for bbc broadcasters at a time of tremendous economic hardship across the country. thank you for that. the uk unemployment rate has risen to its highest level for almost two years. young people were particularly badly—hit, with 16 to 24 ye

that report was from my colleague huw edwards. tomorrow, mishal husain revealed her family story.ime for a look at the weather now, with nick miller. meteorological autumn is now underway, with a set of new storm names as compiled by the weather services of the uk, ireland and the netherlands. the low pressure tomorrow has a bit of the energy of what was once a hurricane, and it will pep up the rainfall for some of us. tonight there will be some rain coming into scotland and northern ireland, although much of the uk will be dry. there is a real big range of temperatures, some milder aircoming into range of temperatures, some milder air coming into northern ireland, while it will be only 5 degrees in norwich. a chilly start for some of us norwich. a chilly start for some of us. some heavier rain moves into scotla nd us. some heavier rain moves into scotland tomorrow morning. up to 60 millimetres of rain are possible over the hills of dumfries and galloway. all of this with a strengthening southerly wind during the day. and after the chilly start, higher temperatures across parts of