Last year, my school (Gumley House) and I participated in the Leatherhead Drama Festival - a prestigious event where schools and drama groups from all over the country compete each year.

My school and I performed for Jill Colbie, the adjudicator; furthermore, if we won the competition, we would get to perform and be presented an award by Sir Michael Caine, the patron of the Leatherhead Drama Festival.

Every week, we would rehearse two hours every Tuesday and Thursday. When we first began rehearsing, the task seemed quite daunting seeing as though we only had a couple of months to produce a polished piece; however, the whole company, staff and students, really came together to produce a performance which I am still really proud of.

During the rehearsals, I got to work with lots of different students in different years who I had not known before. I found that as the weeks progressed, all of us had bonded and became good friends.

We performed our play: "The Lion, the Witch and Room 66" (an adaptation of C S Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe") written and directed by Madaeline Casey, but unfortunately we did not win the competition. Even though we did not win, the whole experience was truly indescribable and I would definitely do it again.