TAVISTOCK College has scooped a prestigious national award for achievement and innovation in teaching the Japanese language.

The college picked up the highly-respected award from the Technology Colleges Trust?s annual national conference this week ? which was attended by Prime Minister Tony Blair and schools minister David Miliband.

College principal John Simes was presented with the award by BBC Radio Four?s Today presenter John Humphrys at the conference at Birmingham ICC on Tuesday.

Mr Simes said he was delighted with the recognition for the college, which is a specialist language school.

He said: ?It is a great honour to receive the Sasakawa Award.

?I want to pay tribute to the outstanding young professionals we have in our Japanese teaching team. They are the most innovative and creative team of teachers that I have ever worked with ?lead by Anu Jain ? and constantly stimulate discussion about teaching and learning.?

Mr Simes said this year more than 75 per cent of students gained an A* to C grade in the subject.

?We do a lot of languages but Japanese has turned out to be one of the most popular.

?Some of our students have gone on to study Japanese at university and we have made school visits to Japan,? he said.

?In a year where the college achieved record A-level results, the award represents yet another example of how we at Tavistock College seek to achieve excellence and expand horizons for the benefit of our whole learning community,? said Mr Simes.

?It?s a great achievement and we are very proud of both students and staff.?

Anu Jain, head of Japanese, said: ?There seems to be a real buzz about Japanese at the school all the time.

?We have the biggest numbers by far studying the subject this year and they are obviously enjoying it.?

Miss Jain said a group of students have just come back from an exchange trip to Japan, the fourth trip the college has organised. The school will also be welcoming Japanese students once more next year.

She said students at Tavistock College do not just study Japanese language ? business etiquette and culture are also included in a completely rounded curriculum.

The Technology Colleges Trust national conference is the largest event of its kind, attended by around 1,500 representatives from Europe?s largest network of affiliated schools.

A spokesman for the Trust said: ?The Great Britain Saskawa Award is a very prestigious honour and we are delighted Tavistock College has won it.

?The school is at the leading edge of a programme to transform secondary education in England.

?The Prime Minister mentioned in his speech to conference that the aim was to have 2,000 specialist schools by 2006 ? further proposals on this programme will be announced within weeks.?

The Trust is responsible for implementing the Government?s specialist schools programme. At present there are 992 such schools, of which 157 specialise in languages.