30810-9PUPILS from Ruskin Junior School are hoping to hit all the right notes when they take part in a national school choir competition at the Royal Festival Hall.

The 65-strong school choir will travel to the competition in London on Tuesday, July 6, to compete against 21 other choirs.

They will have a 12-minute slot in which they will perform four songs including an African alunde and a Negro spiritual song.

Jacki Pattenden, the music specialist teacher at Ruskin, said her pupils were excited about the competition and had been practising hard.

Should they finish in the top two, they will be invited to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in November in the National School Prom. Mrs Pattenden said: "Everyone is working hard and the whole school is supporting us."

About 70 parents will also be travelling to London to support the choir.

The Ruskin choir won the regional schools' choir festival in Oxford in March to earn their place in London.

As well as performing on stage at the competition, the choir which consists of children aged between nine and 11 years old will also be singing to the public in the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall.

And on July 15, the youngsters will be travelling to Barcelona for a week, where they will be performing at three venues.