I’m in! - When I found out I felt really surprised and really happy. The auditioning process was actually fun, even if I hadn’t have got in. They’re nice and supportive here - the people who teach are friendly and so are the kids.​ For auditions, I had to get up really early to catch the train to London with my Mum and my sister who was auditioning too. My Mum wasn’t auditioning though - she’s too old! In the auditions they were really nice, like they didn’t mind when you got the steps wrong and they smiled a lot. We started off by getting to know the other kids, then we did a warm-up, and then we walked into the audition room, did some exercises and that was it. It wasn’t what I’d expected - I thought we’d have to do really hard things from the show and pick it up really quickly but we did some simple exercises and then went home.

I was one of the lucky ones who was asked to come back for a recall. In the second audition we did some more exercises, different this time; I don’t know the names of the things we did because it’s all in French. But by the end of this I think I’ll be able to speak fluent ballet! Waiting for the letter to find out if I’d got in - that was the worst part of it. Then when I heard that me and my sister had got in we both jumped around the house and then rang our grandma.

We’ve just had the casting and met all the other children who we’ll be spending every Sunday with for the next four months. A couple of the kids had done it last year but most of the kids were new. I’ve made friends with people already.

I’m looking forward to Christmas but also wishing it was over so that we can get on with rehearsing. I can’t wait to find out what part I will have. The only thing I don’t like is that now I’m going to have to wear a dance belt every week for four months.

Callum McCabe, age 11