A SCHOOLGIRL beat almost 9,000 hopefuls to record a track for pop mogul Pete Waterman.

Kathryn Coomber, 13, entered a competition as part of a promotional competition printed on the side of Hovis bread packets.

Entrants had to sing a line from their favourite song down the telephone, with Hovis donating 75p to the NSPCC for every call received.

Kathryn, who attends Sedgefield Community College and lives in Trimdon Grange, sang a line from an Avril Lavigne song and was one of 8,894 people who entered. Of those, 300 were randomly selected for Pod Idol judge Pete Waterman to listen to and choose the best 15 to sing on a CD with his new protg, Lauren Waterworth.

Kathryn, travelled to London this week to record the track at Mr Waterman's PWL studios.