Shropshire ballerina Maisy, 11, wins place at prestigious dance school
A pupil from a Shropshire village school has won a place at a prestigious dancing school.
Maisy Rennel, 11, who goes to Bitterley CE School near Ludlow, will be going to the prestigious Elmhurst School for Dance in Birmingham in September.
She auditioned for the school with 900 other applicants, before that was reduced to 48, out of which only 12 were selected to study at Elmhurst, which has links to the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Will Davies, headteacher at the Bitterley school, said staff and pupils were still buzzing over Maisy's fantastic achievement.
He said: "It was clear that Maisy has a great deal of talent and ability. She has been training at Teme Dance since 2008, with lots of tuition from Holly Joynson.
"To be one of only a dozen selected from 900 applicants shows the level of talent and determination she has.
"We are delighted with Maisy's achievement, and as a school we encourage anyone with that level of talent to develop themselves as much as they can.
"Currently we also have a boy in Year 6 who is on West Brom's books and takes time out of school to attend football training sessions.
"We would never stand in the way of an opportunity and these children also work hard on their academic work, as well as on their sports.
"At Bitterley we like to give pupils an all-round education, which means focussing on the creative and the sporting as well as the academic."
Mr Davies said that gaining entry to Elmhurst was a huge achievement for Maisy and that it would be hard work when she was there.
