Hazelwood Integrated College is an integrated

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Newtownabbey Newtownabbey ( ) is a large settlement north of Belfast city centre in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course, but it still forms part of the Belfast metropolitan area ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. The school's students are aged from 11 to 18 years. , the school's principal was Ms Máire Thompson.

Context

Integrated Education Integrated education in Northern Ireland refers to the bringing together of children, parents and teachers from both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions in childhood education: the aim being to provide a balanced education, while allowing the ...

is a Northern Ireland phenomenon, where traditionally schools were sectarian, either run as Catholic schools or Protestant schools. On as parental request, a school could apply to 'transition' to become Grant Maintained offering 30% of the school places to students from the minority community.

Lagan College Lagan College is a grant maintained integrated secondary school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It holds a total of around 1475 students (as of 2024) It was formed in 1981 as the first integrated school in Northern Ireland and contains students o ...

was the first integrated school to open in 1981.

History

Hazelwood Integrated College was founded in 1985. The initial intake of students was 17. The college acquired the former premises of Graymount Girls' School in June 1986 and increased its intake of students to 70. On August 31, 1988 the college was granted "maintained" status. Following a visit by the Minister of State for Education,

Michael Ancram Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, 13th Marquess of Lothian, Baron Kerr of Monteviot, (7 July 1945 – 1 October 2024), commonly known as Michael Ancram, was a British politician and peer who served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party fr ...

in May 1994, the college was awarded a grant of £9.9 million in order to build new school premises. The work was completed in 1999, at which time the college moved into its current state-of-the-art buildings. In 2007, Hazelwood College became the first school in Northern Ireland to be awarded

specialist status Specialist schools in the United Kingdom (sometimes branded as specialist colleges in England and Northern Ireland) are schools with an emphasis or focus in a specific specialised subject area, which is called a specialism, or alternatively in ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

. The school's motto is ; translated into English as Deeds not words. In 2016 the school gained positive publicity in the press regarding its policy of inclusiveness and awareness of

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

issues. In the same year the College achieved its best ever set of

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

results with 87% of students achieving Grade A*-C. In August 2017 it was announced that TV and film producer Emma-Rosa Dias and screenwriter David McCrea, both alumni of Hazelwood, had returned to the college to shoot scenes for a short film being made for

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

. Twice the college has been nominated in the TES schools awards. The school was awarded “Secondary School of the Year” in June 2022 by TES.

Campus

Hazelwood Integrated College consists of four main buildings. The Millennium Building, The Assembly Building, Graymount House and Cedar Lodge. Graymount House is notable for its long history. It is a regency house with neo-classical detailing designed by Thomas Jackson in 1835 and opened by linen merchant William Gray in 1919. The House was bought by the

Belfast Corporation Belfast City Council () is the local authority with responsibility for part of Belfast, the largest city of Northern Ireland. The council serves an estimated population of (), the largest of any district council in Northern Ireland, while bein ...

for the municipal hospital for Tuberculosis children. It then served as the headquarters for the auxiliary fire service during

WW2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising ...

. It reopened in 1945 as Graymount Girls' School. Today it serves as the college's administrative center.

Academics

In 2021, 83 per cent of students achieved three A* to C grades in the GCSE A-level examinations. In the same year, 96 per cent of students obtained five or more GCSE grades A*-C.

Notable alumni

Oliver Jeffers Oliver Brendan Jeffers (born 1977) is an Australian-born Northern Irish people, Northern Irish artist, illustrator and writer. He went to the integrated secondary school Hazelwood College, then graduated from the University of Ulster in 2001 ...

(b. 1977), artist, illustrator and writer * Emma-Rosa Dias, TV and film producer

References

External links

Official Hazelwood Integrated College website
{{Authority control Secondary schools in County Antrim Integrated schools in County Antrim * Specialist colleges in Northern Ireland