Author: Hazelwood College

Welcome to the 96 new first year who joined us this year. Below are pictures of the group click on the photos to enlarge them

Hazelwood College Excel at ITT Challenge in Tralee

Last Wednesday evening, some of the finest young minds in Kerry, Limerick and Cork ascended on Tralee IT for the ITT Challenge Problem Solving Competition. A team from Hazelwood College, “Amazing Atoms” including Michael Byrnes, Maire Flanagan and Anita Lucey won the competition with a remarkable performance. They solved all of the problems and puzzles with a perfect score of 75 in a record time. This left organisers, teachers and members of the other teams in admiration and awe of their mathematical skills. Despite only being second year students all three of these students have also been finalists in the ESAT BT Young Scientist competition. Michael is a past pupil of Balllingarry National School, Maire is a past pupil of Broadford National School and Anita is a past pupil of Milford National School. The team won a laptop computer and printer for the school and received a €50 gift voucher each. A second team from the college “Hazelwood Heroes” made up of Suzanne Sheehy. Megan Mathews and Michael O Flynn also performed very well to achieve a top ten finish. A third team “Bright Sparks” of Stephan Kelliher, Eilis Lenihan and Owen Lordan also did well considering the fact that the team included some first year students.

Pictured are Hazelwood Colleges “Amazing Atoms” Anita Lucey, Michael Byrnes and Máire Flanagan who amazed all those around by winning the ITT Problem Solving Competition with a perfect score.

Hazelwood College takes Safety to Heart

It is estimated that 5,000 Irish people will die from sudden cardiac death this year. In the past year the untimely death of several young people around the country during school and sports activities has been well publicised. In response to this the Graduate Medical School in partnership with the Irish Red Cross- Limerick launched the Limerick Safe-Heart School Initiative. When Hazelwood College were invited to take part in a research project training staff and students in life saving CPR techniques and in the use of a defibrillator, they jumped at the opportunity. Two staff members Mrs Kay Treacy and Mr Noel O Grady attended a one day training course in the University. Following this 25 Transition Year students will also take undertake the training. The school was delighted to be presented with a free Automated External Debrillator following the staff training day. There is no doubt that the presence of such a device along with a number of people trained to use it will make Hazelwood College a safer environment for everyone.

Pictured are Hazelwood College staff members Mr Noel O Grady and Mrs Kay Treacy presenting a defibrillator to Principal Mr Liam Lenihan. They received the device following a training course run by the Graduate Medical School University of Limerick and the Irish Red Cross.

History comes to Life for Hazelwood College Students

Transition Year student Helena O Shea reports on their recent trip to Poland

Imagine being asked to attend school at midnight! Well that’s exactly what twenty seven sleep-deprived students along with three teachers did in order to depart for our trip to Poland. After a five hour journey by bus and plane we eventually reached Krakow airport on Wednesday March 19th at 11am. We even managed to fit in some exercise on the long walk to the departure gate. Needless to say, once we arrived we were a little tired but it was absolutely worth it.

We were welcomed by our tour guide who accompanied us to our hotel and tried, in vain, to teach us a few Polish phrases. Once we were settled we set off on a walking tour of the city. We visited Churches, Palaces, the University and a Market. At each stop we were given a brief history of the building or place, the people who lived there and its importance to Polish history. After such a busy day we were glad to retreat to our hotel and out of the cold.

The following morning at 6am we woke up to a snow covered city. After breakfast we set off on the hour and a half bus trip Auschwitz. First we went to Auschwitz 1. The camp is now a museum where we saw how prisoners in both that camp and Auschwitz2-Birkenau lived and died. Our guide took us through the barracks of the camp and explained what life would have been like there at the different stages of the camps history.

After lunch we had a tour of Auschwitz 2- Birkenau. We began the tour at the reconstructed wooden huts where the prisoners lived. We had read the novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” in school before we left so we found this tour very interesting. As we continued our tour the snow began to fall again and after just ten minutes everything was snow white.

On the third morning we went to the salt mines near Krakow. Despite the very cold temperatures we had been prepared for underground, we didn’t feel the cold that much; by the end of the tour we had walked up and down over seven hundred steps of stairs. As we walked through the mine we were told stories relating to monuments erected in memory of various famous Poles. One of the highlights of the tour was the beautiful Church at the bottom of the mine. It had been carved from salt by three miners and had taken over sixty years. We also visited a museum where we saw exhibitions of art made from salt and old pieces of equipment used for mining.

That afternoon we were given the chance to spend any money that we might have had left in one of the biggest shopping centres in the city. After dinner that night we braved to cold to go bowling. As soon as we returned to our hotel, the packing frenzy began and the panic about how much heavier our bags were now that we had done our shopping.

At 1pm the next day we landed at Shannon Airport, disappointed that it was over but glad to be home. Everybody really enjoyed themselves and the whole trip was a wonderful experience.