Four pupils at Windsor's Rhodes Academy of Dance have successfully auditioned to be junior associates of the Royal Ballet School.

It means they will have weekly classes every Saturday at the legendary school - a chance offered to strictly limited numbers of talented young dancers aged between eight and 10.

Megan Rhodes from the Windsor school said it had never had so many of its pupils successfully audition before.

She said: "It is quite exceptional to get one dancer into the Royal Ballet School but to have five in one class at the same time is something else. Over 1,000 dancers apply throughout the country for the course and there are only 16 dancers successful for the year four and year five class."

The Rhodes Academy already had one junior associate Francesca Case, nine, attending the Royal Ballet School - as well as senior associate Clara Bardwell, 14, who started as a junior when she was nine.

The four new pupils to successfully audition are Alexis Gilbert, nine, who attends the Royal School full time, Georgie Fisher and Ruby Brooke, both eight who go to Upton House School in Windsor and Juiu Zhang, nine who goes to Manorcroft Primary School in Egham.

Meghan Rhodes is a leading teacher at the Rhodes Academy of Dance which is based on the Fairacre Industrial Estate in Dedworth Road, as well as being the daughter of its founder and principal Heidi Rhodes.

She said: "When the results came through we were so shocked and overwhelmed, I couldn’t believe it and spent the day crying.

"We are so excited to be part of their journey with the Royal Ballet School and can’t wait to see what the future holds for these talented young ladies."

The girls all train at the Rhodes Academy throughout the week for four to 13 hours doing ballet, modern, tap, contemporary, Acro, stretch & conditioning and a lot of rehearsals for the competition team.