A theatre group has won a place in the Grand Final of the Glee Club Challenge for the third year running.

The Deborah Day Theatre School will be taking part in the Grand Final of the Jack Petchey Foundation ‘Glee Club Challenge’ following their success in the regional finals which were held at the Broadway Theatre, Barking recently.

The Grand Final will take place at the Indigo O2 Arena on November 24 with Graham Norton heading up the judges and a chance to win a share of £5,000 in prizes.

Now in its third year the JPF ‘Glee Club Challenge’ attracted groups of 8 to 30 performers, aged between 11 and 25. Twenty seven groups from auditions submitted during the summer were selected to contest regional finals. All regional finalists attended ‘boot-camp’ workshops with a professional singing coach and choreographer to help develop their skills.

The Deborah Day Theatre School, based at the Hartley Centre, in Barking Road, East Ham was established by Principal Deborah Day who started dancing at the age of two and following a successful career opened the school in 1982 now with over 300 young people attending classes.

Runners up last year the Glee Club group this time consists of 20 talented young performers aged 11 to 19.

Deborah Day said: “Of course we are thrilled to get to the Grand Final again and for some it will be their first time. We have some great raw talent and feedback from Boot Camp really helped them focus. We think the competition is stronger this year but it would be great to win at last!”