A TALENTED drama student has proved she is top of the class by scoring one of the highest exam marks in the country.

Georgia McIntyre, 13, achieved a 98 per cent score in her acting exams with the London College of Music.

The aspiring actress, from Darlington, has already been selected as one of only 750 students nationally to join the National Youth Theatre, and her latest exam performance has been hailed by the exam board as excellent.

The Hummersknott School and Language College student dedicates hours of her time to brushing up on her performing skills, attending stage school, and also taking singing and dancing lessons from her coach Pippa Hull.

She is already an accomplished musician.

Jocelyn Lord, the exam board's chief examiner for drama, wrote to Georgia and her mother, Paula, to say how impressed they were.

She said: "People need to know that in order to gain such a high mark, the candidate requires to show confidence together with sincere natural talent and the ability to produce the technical skills required in order to convince the examiner that the performance is something very rare and special.

"I am sure that Georgia will go from strength to strength."

Proud Mrs McIntyre said: "It's really, really good, she works so hard at it. It's brilliant to see her achieve as much as she has.

"Georgia loves both music and drama, and really enjoys what she does. We are all very proud of her."