A SCHOOL that achieved fame when its wind turbine became the first in the UK to be connected to the National Grid has won an environmental award.

Cassop Primary School, in Durham, has been awarded the National Grid Transco/TNEI Energy Efficiency Award.

As well as a supply of wind power, the school is heated by a wood-burning boiler - also the first in the UK - which is fuelled by recycled wood pellets, produced at the waste site at nearby Coxhoe run by Premier Waste.

Part of the school's power supply comes from a bank of photovoltaic panels on the roof that converts sunlight into electricity.

Headteacher Jim McManners said: "We are attempting to make the building a resource for learning and to offer children hope that we can do our bit to make our world sustainable."

The school is one of 60 organisations to have received the award in its three years of operation.

Karen Hindhaugh, of National Grid Transco, said: "Cassop has become a beacon for the use of renewable energy and is clearly deserving of recognition from the NGT/TNEI award scheme."