A NORTH-EAST headteacher has won a national lifetime achievement award for his contribution to special needs teaching.

Mike Vening was presented with the Ted Wragg Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2009 UK Teaching Awards last night.

Mr Vening has devoted his life to working with children with special needs.

He spent the past 11 years as headteacher of Abbey Hill School and Technology College, in Stockton, before retiring over the summer. It is an oversubscribed school for 11 to 19-year-olds with a wide range of multiple learning difficulties.

Throughout his 21-year career at Abbey Hill School and Technology College, and during more than 40 years in teaching, Mr Vening fought to ensure pupils have their talents recognised and refused to allow those with special needs to be seen as second-class.

He started his career as an infant school teacher in Hounslow, London, before spending 15 years as a special educational needs (SEN) advisor, in Sunderland.

Mr Vening believes “the limit of where we go is the limit of our imagination, not the limit of our resources”.

His hard work at Abbey Hill paid off when it was the first special school in the country to become a technology college.

He was instrumental in setting up a federation of special schools in Stockton and became executive head of Westlands Special School as well as Abbey Hill.

A colleague said: “He is an entrepreneur with a big heart and a true capacity to enthuse others – a champion for young people with special educational needs.”

Another colleague said: “Wherever Mike works, every child matters and every child fulfills their potential. His contribution to improving the lives of SEN children across Stockton has been enormous.”

Judges said Mr Vening had shown that young people with special needs “can be valued as valuable members of the community”.

At the ceremony at the Theatre Royal, in Drury Lane, London, last night, Mr Vening was one of 12 winners to receive awards before a 2,000- strong audience.

The Teaching Awards UK were established 11 years ago and this year the ceremony was hosted by television presenter Christine Bleakley and Jeremy Vine, from Panorama.

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said: “Teachers are at the heart of their schools and communities and are central in ensuring that young people achieve their potential.

“It is a vital career which deserves to be recognised at the very highest level.”