Knightsfield pupils are represented in four ‘houses’ – Antro, Cattermole, Haddock and Clarke.
Each house has been named after a significant public and deaf figure.
- Antro – Raymond Antrobus
Raymond is a British educator and poet of Jamaican heritage who has been performing poetry since 2007.
He won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry in March 2018.
In May 2019 Raymond became the first poet to win the Rathbones Folio prize for his collection of ‘The Perseverance’.
- Cattermole – Reece Cattermole
Reece was diagnosed with a genetic, degenerative hearing condition at 3 years old. He is expected to be completely deaf by the time he is 40.
Reece is the first boxer in the UK to be given a professional licence since the 1970’s. He is a middleweight boxer who started boxing at 11 years old as a way of dealing with his frustration at going deaf.
- Haddock – Jack Haddock
Jack plays rugby for the England Deaf rugby team.
He started playing rugby when he was at secondary school. He played for his local team in Harpenden and was also lucky enough to be in the Saracens Under 18’s Academy.
- Clarke – Melanie Clarke
Melanie is profoundly deaf and has a cochlear implant. She is a UK deaf athlete who ran for Team GB in the marathon and 10,000m at the 2013 Deaflympics. Melanie won Bronze in the marathon.
She is the UK ambassador for the NCIUA (National Cochlear Implant Users Association). She helps make people aware of deafness and the life of an implantee.
As well as this, she has enjoyed a 25 year career so far working for IBM, and using the tools and technology available to assist her deafness.
Melanie continues to run and is a qualified run leader.
Because of her achievements, she has benefitted from many awards and experiences.
