FOUNDER and musical director of the award-winning Highcliffe Junior Choir Mary Denniss is laying down her conductor's baton after nearly 40 years.

Miss Denniss, who earned the MBE for services to youth music in 1990, bows out at the choir's end-of-term party on Friday after giving her swansong performance at last week's International Eisteddfod in Llangollen where Highcliffe finished third among 19 choirs from around the world.

But while she is stepping down from the conducting rostrum, Miss Denniss will still work closely with the choir she formed in 1969 among her former pupils at Highcliffe Junior School who came back to sing after school on Friday afternoons.

Since then the choir has grown in number - currently some 50 members aged between eight and 18 in the main choir and a 20-strong training choir of under-10s - and reputation, earning numerous awards, not least the 1996 Sainsbury Youth Choir of the Year title.

Many of her protégés have graduated to singing and musical careers, and in recent years the choir has been joined by sons and daughters of former members.

The choir has performed in many prestigious venues and given broadcasts on radio and television.

Highcliffe Junior Choir has also made an annual pilgrimage to the Eisteddfod since 1973, frequently finishing as the best British entry and judged runner-up on several occasions, most recently in 2002.

Miss Denniss trained as a music teacher at Trinity College of Music before coming to Highcliffe Junior School where she spent 22 years, becoming deputy head and director of music before retiring from the classroom in 1989.

"The choir is like a big family and there is a really super atmosphere," she said.