A teacher from Nuneaton has been given the award for Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School at the Pearson Teaching Awards., external

Romayne Charles is subject leader for social sciences at Higham Lane School, in Weddington, Nuneaton, and has been teaching there for the last seven and a half years.

Image source, The Pearson Teaching Awards

She has been described as "an enthusiastic, inspirational teacher with the highest expectations, whose excellence in teaching and learning achieves outstanding results across her several subjects".

Miss Charles has been credited for her "non-judgemental approach", and her ability to read emotions.

One student referred to her as "our school mum".

James Wilson has been given a six-year sentence for killing Charlie Heywood.

Faith Page
Reporter, BBC Shropshire

The new operators running trains through parts of the West Midlands to Wales say it could take five years to solve overcrowding problems.

Transport for Wales's predecessor Arriva Trains Wales has come under fire from commuters and MPs for years for regularly using shorter trains on some routes.

It operates services to Birmingham New Street, Crewe, Hereford and Shrewsbury, among others.

TfW says passengers need to be patient while waiting for improvements.

It's a French-Spanish joint venture by KeolisAmey with TfW overseeing the franchise.

It's promising to replace all trains, at a cost of £800m, but admits it'll be around five years before 95% of journeys have new, higher capacity trains.

In the meantime, some busy commuter services are still running with just two carriages.

West Midlands Police has seized more than £70,000 in "a week of action" at Birmingham Airport.

Officers said the money may represent everything from funds destined to support terrorism, the proceeds of crime or even cash stolen by pickpockets.

In all, cash amounting to £73,000 was seized throughout the week from individuals travelling abroad, in one instance, £30k of the cash was found hidden in nappies and on another occasion, over £20k was found in two separate suitcases, the force said.

No-one has been arrested at this stage, but investigations are ongoing.

Specialist police dogs trained to detect large quantities of cash were used to check hold and hand luggage as passengers queued at check-in desks.

The planned closure of Accident and Emergency units in Shropshire will put huge pressure on neighbouring units, the chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust says.

Last week, New Cross Hospital had its second busiest day ever, with 178 ambulances over a 24-hour period, despite the mild weather and no major events.

Year-on-year, hospital boss David Laughton said there had been a 10% rise in ambulance activity across the West Midlands last week, although it was too early to work out the cause.

He said plans had been put in place to increase capacity in Wolverhampton to deal with winter pressures, although this would be "consumed" by the extra cases coming from Telford.

Despite that, he said: "We will cope and we will deal with whatever happens."

Shropshire Star

Here are some of the stories the Shropshire Star is looking at today:

• Future Fit: More than 18,500 responses in consultation on Shropshire health shake-up, external
• Shock as third of Shropshire GCSE students fail to hit maths and English standard, external
• Strictly caring: Shrewsbury home welcomes dance pair, external

Cash and cigarettes have been stolen from a shop by two men who threatened staff with knives.

It happened at the One Stop in Newbold Road, Wellesbourne at about 06:00 today.

Warwickshire Police said, external both suspects were described as being white, one was described as being in his 30s and the other in his 20s.

Image source, Google

Audrey Dias
Journalist, BBC Midlands Today

A junior hockey team are on a trip of a lifetime taking on some of the best young players in India.

The National Hockey Academy in Coventry are in Punjab as part of an international hockey tour.

The trip will also involve them handing over more than 200 pairs of trainers they've collected for children who don't always have access to even the most basic sports kit.

Phil Bowers
Journalist, BBC Radio Stoke

A motorcyclist has been taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital with minor injuries after a crash on the M6 this morning.

Two lanes are still closed northbound between Junction 14 and 15 and there are delays around the area.

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

Organisers in Coventry will find out later how much money they will get from Arts Council England to fund events for the UK City of Culture in 2021.

When Hull won, it was given about £3m.

The figure will be revealed at the Transport Museum after 17:00 tonight.

Image source, PA

Express and Star

Here are some of the stories making the early headlines on the Express and Star website this morning:

• Jailed: Former Walsall sub-postmaster stole £122,000 from Post Office branch, external
• Midlands hospitals make £11m from parking fees, external
• Switch to fortnightly bin collections in Wolverhampton gets under way, external

A man has died and another has suffered serious injuries in a crash, the ambulance service said, external.

A car hit a tree at about 22:35 yesterday on Newbold Road, Newbold Pacey, Warwickshire.

The driver of the car was confirmed dead at the scene.

Image source, Google

West Midlands Ambulance Service said another man, a passenger, suffered "potentially serious injuries" and was rushed to hospital.

Emergency services have dealt with an arson attack overnight in Sparkhill, Birmingham.

West Midlands Police tweeted , externalit had been a "busy night shift".

The force said it believed the building to be derelict, but that it was sometimes used by homeless people.

Image source, @ResponseWMP

It said the ambulance service attended alongside fire crews, but no one was injured.

Image source, @ResponseWMP

BBC News

The news that a secondary school is to ban pupils from speaking between lessons or face detention as part of a new "silent corridor" rule, has split people on social media.

Students at Ninestiles in Acocks Green, Birmingham, will be expected to move around the building in silence from 5 November, a letter to parents said.

Image source, Google

You have been commenting on the BBC Midlands Facebook page, external, Basil Sponge said: "A very small minded rule for the sake of authority. What value are you trying to teach with this? People naturally need to talk, we come to school to learn academic content, social integration, ethics and values."

While Diane Davies said she "cannot see the problem", adding "they are at school to learn and grow into responsible adults.

"This was common practice in the 1960s - not always actual silence but at least very quiet and definitely no running."

And Sam Lowe commented: "Wouldn't this be counter productive, you can't talk in the corridor so you end up talking to your mate in lesson instead which causes way more disruption."

Amy Cole
BBC Midlands Today

A scheme in Birmingham's Sutton Park that encourages children with disabilities out on bicycles with their families is hoping to branch out nationwide.

Parkride is based on the popular parkrun scheme and has been being given a slice of £40m by Sport England.

The money is being distributed to projects that help low income families and those with disabled children to experience sport or physical activity.

BBC Radio Stoke

The man accused of murdering Stoke-on-Trent midwife Samantha Eastwood is due in court today.

Michael Stirling, 32, from Bucknall is expected to enter a plea when he appears at Northampton Crown Court later.

Image source, Samantha Eastwood

Ms Eastwood, 28, was reported missing by colleagues at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in July when she didn't turn up to work a night shift.

Her body was found just over a week in a shallow grave in Caverswall.

BBC Hereford and Worcester

Two men have been arrested after a teenager was stabbed in Hereford on Friday night.

West Mercia Police was called to Addison Court near Edgar Street just before 23:00 following reports of a disturbance.

The 18-year-old was taken to hospital, but his injuries aren't thought to be life-threatening.

BBC Sport

Coventry Paralympian Kare Adenegan has been chosen as the BBC's Young Sports Personality of 2018.

The 17-year-old became the European 100 metres champion in her classification and also set a new world record for the distance at the London Anniversary Games.

She'll attend the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year awards in Birmingham in December.

Pupils at Ninestiles in Birmingham will be given detention if caught speaking between classes.

BBC Midlands Today

Jaguar Land Rover starts a two-week shut-down of its Solihull factory today after a fall in demand for its cars.

Britain's biggest car maker has already moved to a three-day week at the Castle Bromwich plant and laid off 1,000 workers across its Midlands operations earlier this year.

JLR said employees would still be paid during the shut-down and customer orders would not be affected.