The Seven Steps Academy for the Deaf is saying farewell to its principal, Lee-Ann Kannemeyer, who will retire at the end of the month.
The oral deaf teaching school caters for deaf pupils from primary to high school.
Ms Kannemeyer, 60, of Hout Bay, joined the school in 2007 when it was still known as the Dominican Grimley School for the Deaf and located in Hout Bay.
She started teaching Grade 1 in 2008 and was appointed head of department for the primary school in 2012. She was made acting principal in 2019 with the appointment becoming permanent in 2021, the year the school moved to District Six and changed its name.
“It is such an incredible gift to give children the ability to be able to communicate in the oral world that I was immediately enamoured with the approach,” says Ms Kannemeyer, who studied special education at UCT in the 1980s.
A highlight of her time at the school, she says, is watching 5-year-olds enter the school with little or no language and leave as well-rounded young adults capable of writing the same matric exams as their peers.
“Our pupils face so much adversity throughout their lives that their achievements in the matric examinations are that much more delightful.”
She is very proud of the school’s consistent 100% matric pass rates over the years.
“I am also proud of carrying the Dominican Sisters’ vision and legacy over to the new school and hope that the ethos of the school will remain long after I leave.”
She recalls the challenge the school faced moving from a 23-acre property in Hout Bay – with two sports fields, a swimming pool and two halls – to smaller premises with fewer facilities in District Six.
“It took a while for the shock to wear off and for the high school pupils to accept that they could no longer run and kick a ball at break times. Three years later, we are well settled and love our beautiful new school.”
Before joining Seven Steps, Ms Kannemeyer taught at Ellerton Primary in Three Anchor Bay for 12 years. She also ran maths courses for teachers at UCT and has been involved in curriculum development since 1991, co-authoring maths textbooks for Oxford University Press.
Seven Steps deputy principal Marina Paioni, who worked with Ms Kannemeyer at Ellerton Primary and started at Seven Steps when she did 17 years ago, describes her as “part of the very fabric of our school”.
Ms Kannemeyer enjoys cold-water swimming and reading as hobbies, and she plans to visit Greece and her two children in Europe during her retirement.
Toni Irvine will take over as acting principal from next month.
