WHILE her friends pack their bags for university, a former Journal Carnival Queen heads off for a year with a difference this weekend as she checks into one of the best drama schools in the world.

WHILE her friends pack their bags for university, a former Journal Carnival Queen heads off for a year with a difference this weekend as she checks into one of the best drama schools in the world.

Charlotte Barker, of Carlton Colville, beat off tough competition to become the youngest person accepted on the course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. And after scraping together the �11,000 required to fund the course, she can't wait to get started.

'I'm really nervous but also excited,' said Charlotte, who was last year's Journal Carnival Queen.

'I've got lots of classes doing movement, dance, mime, singing, dialect and accents. These are things I haven't done before and don't know what to expect.'

Charlotte and her family have had to make a number of sacrifices to help her realise her dream as they tried to raise the �11,000 required to send her on the course.

'It's been so hard but I've just managed to do it,' she said. 'I've had to sell things and empty my bank account, but an anonymous donation of �500 was brilliant.'

Amongst those to pass through the doors at RADA are Sir Anthony Hopkins and Kenneth Branagh, and Charlotte, 18, hopes that the long hours and extensive reading lists will all be worth it.

'I just hope it pays off,' she said. 'I'm going to learn a lot of new skills and want to go on to do a three-year course afterwards, which they help you to go for.'

Despite missing some classes at East Norfolk Sixth Form College, in Gorleston, to go to auditions, Charlotte achieved two As and a B in her A Levels.

'It felt weird on results day, because others really needed results and didn't know if they would be accepted, but it was strange for me as it was all done in auditions,' she said.

Charlotte moved in with three of her fellow classmates in north London last weekend, but left them to settle in as she returned home to play the role of Beth, in Dusmagrik Production's musical Take That: Could It Be Magic, at the Hippodrome, in Great Yarmouth, tonight and tomorrow night.