A TINY school lined up for closure as part of a £300m shake-up of education has won a top award.

Cassop Primary School, near Durham, was one of 11 from the North-East to be honoured at the regional Teaching Awards last week.

The win was announced a week after it was revealed the school is on a list of 23 in County Durham which are being considered for closure. Cassop is under threat because it has a capacity for 140 children and has 56 spare places, a figure which is expected to rise.

The school, the first in the country to be powered by a wind turbine, received the BT Award for School and Community Involvement.

Headteacher Jim McManners collected the prize from BBC Look North presenter Wendy Gibson at Newcastle's Centre for Life.

Representatives of the school will be invited to a national Teaching Awards ceremony in October which will be shown on BBC1 in early November.