EastEnders Maisie Smith's former drama school celebrating 22-years

Sandra Singer, 73, founded the Sandra Singer Stage School, in Elm Road, Leigh, back in 2002 as she set her sights on helping youngsters develop their talent.

Since, hundreds of talented youngsters have passed through the doors before going on to big-name roles in the worlds of dance, stage, and on TV.

School - The Sandra Singer Stage School (Image: Aimee Singer)

Maisie Smith, who starred in EastEnders before proving a fan favourite on Strictly Come Dancing, attended as a youngster while the school has supplied actors for big name productions including Matilda the Musical, the West End version of hit-Netflix show Stranger Things and Matilda the Musical movie.

Principal, Sandra, is confident she gives youngsters the recipe for stardom that can take them from Leigh to the big lights of Hollywood.

“I have never been prouder of the results at the school and what we have accomplished,” she said.

“The reason I do my job is to hopefully make people more successful and achieve their goals, this is such a hard industry to enter, and you just have to be so skilled to enter it.

“We have had people go onto Lane’s dance school and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, so they have all gone to do great things and trained after me, it is such a benefit to them when it comes to looking for work.

Sandra Singer (Image: Aimee Singer)

“Everything we do is under one roof, I now even have the children of some of my ex-students coming to the school because they get how we work.”

Next month, the stage school will be celebrating its 22nd birthday and is performing a number of showcases as well as hosting summer schools to celebrate.

Sandra added: “We try to keep everything to such a high level, there is not much point if they don’t want to work and work they do, my students all aim to a higher standard.

“We try to equip them for everything because who knows what will happen, honestly, most actors around here have come to me at some point.”