THE successes of Burlish Middle School choir would make anyone think Jean Fry was blessed with a collection of angels under her baton.

How does a school music director attract 70 children, nearly a fifth of the school, into a choir that keeps a strict routine of practice at least three times a week in lunchtime breaks and after school?

The present acting deputy head may always be dreaming of greater achievements for her choir but a lifetime of school teaching, including 11 years at Burlish, has also made her a realist. She is expert at sensing when a child pleading to join the school choir is inspired by the chance of time out from the classroom. She treats it with humour. "Our trips are only a little carrot but they do relish it," she says.

No child, however, joins Mrs Fry's choir without an audition. All singers must have perfect pitch and once they have been recruited have to pledge "total commitment and no messing".

Most school choirs are open to all-comers but Mrs Fry is ambitious for her nine to 13-year-old singers. "We like to be really special," she confesses.

The rewards are great. This month the group was invited to join for yet another year the eisteddfod festival in Wales where the choir is among the chosen few of that age group considered good enough to compete with singers from all over the world.

"They love this trip. They have a wonderful time feeding the sheep in the hills and meeting people from other countries in national costume," Mrs Fry says.

Travel and singing have always gone together for her since early days as a school music and religious education teacher.

Backed by proud and supportive parents, she took the group to Holland this year and plans to visit Germany next year. This is in addition to performances, especially at Christmas, round the region and sometimes up country.

Mrs Fry's own childhood made her wise to children's ways. Brought up in Bromsgrove, she recalls being "found out" turning the clock forward to shorten her piano practice.

But she always loved music, joining the Bromsgrove Ladies Choir at the age of nine to become its mascot and be "showered with sweets and pats on the head."

A regular solo soprano at local events, she then took a diploma at the London College of Music and trained as a teacher in Hereford.

With her husband Gordon, her other passion is the Salvation Army. She is thrilled that one of her three daughters is to train in London as an officer. But for the moment her main excitement is entering the youngsters for the Sainsbury's Choir of the Year competition next year. "Why not? They work so hard bless them," she says.