A STAR dancer from Amesbury School has beaten off stiff competition from 2,000 competitors to gain one of the 40 coveted associate places offered each year by The Royal Ballet School.

Rory will join the associate programme, which nurtures young, talented students between the ages of eight and 15, and is designed to augment his current training while introducing him to The Royal Ballet School’s system of training.

Associates sometimes have the opportunity to perform with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and other leading companies and many have progressed through the school and into the Royal Ballet companies.

No stranger to the spotlight, Rory has just finished playing Eric, in Matilda The Musical in London’s West End.

Five Amesbury ballet students are also celebrating each being awarded distinctions in their exam results.

It took a lot of hard work by Libby, Bibi, Lily, Jemima and Clara to gain top grades.

In addition to learning 22 ballet exercises and a full piece of choreography, they had to be confident French speakers to understand what the examiner required them to do.

• Amesbury’s head of dance Erin Norris said: “Needless to say we are thrilled and of course, extremely proud. Ballet teacher Rebecca Paris, a new addition to our dance department, has kicked off her first year at the school with true style.”

• Amesbury U8s footballers have also been performing well, by remaining undefeated throughout the whole season.

Alex Alesbrook, head of boys games said: “With a year group of 29 boys we were able to field up to five teams at times.

“All the boys played every week against local prep schools in the Surrey and Hampshire area.

An excellent return of 76 goals for and only 13 goals against showed what a talented year group of footballers they are.

“It was very nerve-wracking going into the final Thursday of matches against Haslemere Prep, the parents were more aware of the undefeated record more than the boys.

“Amesbury boys have now moved on to rugby and we cannot wait to see them on the rugby field after such an impressive start playing football. Congratulations to all involved.”