Hazelwood College


Hazelwood Integrated College is an integrated secondary school in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland and has students from ages 11–18. As of September 2018, the school's principal is Ms Máire Thompson.
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 for the municipal hospital for Tuberculosis children. It then served as the headquarters for the auxiliary fire service during WW2. It reopened in 1945 as Graymount Girls' School. Today it serves as the college's administrative center.

Overview

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 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 in digital arts. The school's motto is Facta non Verba - Deeds not words
In 2016 the school gained positive publicity in the press regarding its policy of inclusiveness and awareness of LGBT issues. In the same year the College achieved its best ever set of GCSE 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.

Notable alumni