Author: Hazelwood College

The annual Open Day for the local primary schools and their students will take place on Friday 16th November. The day gives the students an oppourtunity to see a working day in the school. Classes will take in place in the various labs, practical rooms and classroom. This is a great oppourtunity for student to find out about subjects they might be interested in taking up when they start in the College in September. Over the day the College will bring students to Hazelwood College and return them back to their school on the schools buses.

The thrid year science classes 3acand 3d will travel to Fota Wildlife park on 6th November to take part in an Ecology course.

The third year science classes 3a and 3b will travel to Fota Wildlife park on 5th November to take part in an Ecology course.

The Leaving Certificate 2 Biology class will travel to Fota Wildlife park on the 24th October.

Pictured are the Hazelwood College Concern Debating Team who defeated SMI, Newcastle West in the first round of the competition last week. Debating has become an important part of school life. Last years team beat off local competition to make it through to the last 16 in the country.

The Leaving Certificate Applied 2 class will travel to Killaloe Activity Centre on 15th October. While there they will take part in a variety of Land and Water based activities such as Kayaking, Windsurfing, High Rope Course and Team Challenges

The Leaving Certificate Applied 1 class will attend a Personal Development Course run by the Limerick Youth Service starting Friday 12th October for the following four weeks

Award winning poet Maurice Riordan visits Hazelwood College

5th Year Student Triona Sheehy reports on the visit of Maurice Riordan to Hazelwood

For many teenagers poetry readings can be intimidating places and as a result few get to experience poetry as the poet intended it to be heard. When Maurice Riordan, winner of the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award, recently made a visit to our school there was an atmosphere of barely disguised excitement and uncertainty. The poet however, was completely at ease discussing poetry, both his own and that of other poets such as Patrick Kavanagh, Shakespeare and Dylan Thomas. He read from his own award winning collection, The Holy Land’, and listened as we, the students, gave our own opinions and interpretations of his verse. For many this was our first encounter with poetry outside of the set textbook. Maurice’s poetry is certainly alive and kicking. His poems are a homage to his late father who was, and still remains, his muse. They also have an immediacy of emotion that never lapses into sentimentality. His poetry was well received by all three groups from Transition Year, Leaving Cert 1 and 2, who attended the reading and afterwards debate raged about what was, in each person’s opinion, “the best bit”- an argument that no-one could possibly win.