The Young West End is a school club and so might not be what you were expecting when you saw the title, but it doesn’t lose its importance for its members.

The Young West End is for young students at Rosebery School, Epsom, where they sing, dance and act in musical theatre performances, running Wednesday lunch times.

Emily Dicey, a 16 year-old sixth form student, is the director of the club. This means she chooses the songs they want to perform alongside the girls, choreographs the dancing, as well as teaches them the singing and acting. “It’s a lot of organisation,” she says. “I do it because I love to teach and I love to perform – especially musical numbers. So, the two together is a dream come true. In the future I want to become a primary school teacher, so I thought this job would be a great experience.”

I loved to hear from Emily’s perspective what about the club was so good. She told me that “the girls get a safe and fun environment to excel in their natural talents and to learn new techniques. It’s a great community, and I think it’s probably a stress relief (it’s definitely that for me).”

“We performed this last term in the school Christmas concert at the Epsom playhouse. The club is still relatively new, and I think we are still finding our feet a little. However I would really like to put on a show for parents – maybe a fundraiser – by the end of the year to show off their improvement. They’re very talented kids. In the Christmas concert, the girls performed ‘One Short Day’ from Wicked and ‘School Song’ from Matilda.”

For those who are interested, I was informed and I say this directly quoting from Emily, that “the club is open to anyone in the younger years really. At the moment we just have year 8s but year 7s are completely welcome. I say this, but if anyone of any age at the school wanted to join, the answer would always be yes. (But everyone no matter what age is treated equally) and except for the costumes and possibly props, there are no costs to the weekly club.”

As a fellow sixth form student I am inspired by what Emily has taken on, on top of her classes. Not everyone would put in such time and effort, so well done from us.

“My favourite thing about the club is that I get to do something I love, while getting to know talented and brilliant young students. It’s great to get to know others who are younger than me.” -Emily Dicey