I

used to be the sort of girl who enjoyed breakfast, dinner and tea, but now I am the sort of young lady who partakes of breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner followed by a sumptuous pudding rather than my usual afters.

I now know the correct way to set a table for a number of different courses, how to decorate it and how to use a knife and fork properly.

I can make heads turn when I gracefully enter a room and know that it is unladylike to touch up my make-up in public. Amazingly, I learned all of this and more after just one day at a Cheshire finishing school.

The Finishing Academy, set in the elegant surroundings of Combermere Abbey near Whitchurch, was set up in March by ex-BBC presenter Diana Mather and friend Penny Edge, who also runs a recruitment and training business.

It offers modern girls the chance to brush up on their basic skills and etiquette in three or five-day courses and become graceful young ladies in ultra quick time.

Diana said: "We started the Finishing Academy with the intention of filling that significant gap that had been left by the demise of the finishing schools.

"We were always being asked by mothers if there were courses available to help give their 16 to 18-year-old daughters confidence and that extra bit of polish.

"I think girls today still want to learn basic etiquette and know how to behave appropriately in any situation but they don't want to spend a year doing it."

She added: "Confidence and self-belief are two of the greatest gifts you can give anybody and the aim of our Finishing Academy is to give young women that self esteem that most are sadly lacking."

My day at the academy began with a crash course in flower arranging.

Not my strongest subject, I must admit, but it was fun seeing a fresh floral display take some sort of shape beneath my fingertips and know that with practice and a bit more time I could make a passable table centre.

T

hen I was given top tips on what to wear for a day at the races, how to reply to a formal invitation and the best sort of gifts to take to a dinner party.

Lunch was followed by an intensive deportment session, which was undoubtedly my favourite part of the day.

I had my posture corrected and learned how to glide across a room with my head held high, how to turn with elegance and how to sit in a much more ladylike manner.

By the end of the session I had managed at least two turns around the room with a book carefully balanced on my head and, much to the amusement of friends and family, have been practicing this ever since.

But what I really did take from my day was confidence and the importance of taking pride in yourself and your appearance.

Women do not have to compete with men by acting like them when we can be ladylike and dignified and still thoroughly modern.