Author: Hazelwood College

Hazelwood Upgrades IT Systems

It has been a very busy year in the IT Department atHazelwood College, undertaking the largest upgrade since the school first opened in 2002. Some of the changes are very visible to the user, such as the installation of over 100 ‘developer’ Desktops in all of the classrooms. Studentsin the school now use the latest versions of Microsoft software – Windows 7 Professional and Office 2010. Other improvements in the school were less visible to the user, improved wireless networks and the installation of a fibre optic network to join our three previous networks together to form one high speed fibre powered network. New laser printers were purchased for student use, projectors were installed in the classrooms that didn’t previously have them, and to drive all this new improved hardware two new ultra high specification servers were installed. Still to come is the final phase of our upgrades which will include the installation of sound systems in all the classrooms to compliment the projectors and the introduction of new hardware such as visualizers to specialist rooms such as Technology.

All of this couldn’t have been possible without the help of the Transition years. Over the year they removed all of the old retired equipment and cleaned down rooms to prepare for the new desktops. They were then upgraded to administrators and installed to new desktops onto the network. They learned about how computers are controlled and managed in a network environment, installed antivirus, antispyware and firewalls on the new desktops. As part of this upgrade they removed the internal sound and video cards from the old desktops and installed them to the new desktops and rewired the languagelab.

As reward for all their hard work in April we went on a two day hike to and from the Black Valley in Co. Kerry. We set out from Muckross House in Killarney in some glorious sunshine in the direction of Ladies View. A tough climb up the side of Torc Waterfall took us to the old Kenmare Road between Torc and Mangerton Mountains which we followed to Ladies View where we stopped for lunch. Once fed we dropped down to valley floor to hike into the Black Valley. Despite some valiant efforts to stay dry crossing some streams all was lost when the some brave souls had to go for a river swim. That evening in the hostel cooked Spaghetti Bolognese for 20 under the watchful eyes of MsDaly (thanks). Next morning after a feed of 80 sausages we headed for the Gapof Dunloe and to the finishing line of Kate Kearney’s Cottage. All in all over the two days we walked 30kms.

Hazelwood College Green Day.

Picture 1 shows the Hazelwood College students who took part in the 13km Green schools cycle

Picture 2 The green schools committee who organised and ran the recent Green Schools Day in Hazelwood

The students of Hazelwood College held a Green Day, with an ambition to earn their next Green Flag.They started their day with a school cycle. Escorted by the local Gardai, over 60 Hazelwood students set out on their trip, cycling a ring of 13km. Teachers, Mr Finn, Ms O Connor and Mr Fealy also took to their bikes with Ms Corkery behind on motivation and breakdown control!!;On returning they recieved a healthy breakfast bar and some juice. This was a huge success, the students got a great sense of fun and achievment from the cycle and have reported back, that they have been cycling more in their free time, to the shops and to their friends house reducing their carbon footprint and been kinder to the earth.

The next step for the Green Schools was getting their message accross on what the students can do to make a difference to the energy levels been used in the school. Abbey Demsey, Ciara Fitzgibbon, Stephen Hourigan and David Finn gave very impressive and convincing presentations to the students about switching off the lights when they are not needed, and many more pointers on how to cut back on their use of energy. Hopefully they will keep in mind all they learned to help the Green School in their ambition of achieving a ‘greener Hazelwood College’.

The students finished off their hard days work by taking part in the National Spring Clean. With their kits and gloves the Green Schools Committee set off picking up rubbish from all around the school grounds and in the village of Dromcollogher. Recycling everything in to the appropiate bins.

Last but not least, over the past number of weeks they have been running a Poster and Slogan campaign where Art students came up with slogans for their Green Code and designed posters to help create awareness throughout the school about energy saving . The winners were announced, 1st Place: Alannah Matthews,2nd Place: Caroline O Flynn, Roisin Noonan and3rd place: Selina Keily. Well done girls and Well done to everyone who participated with the green schools committee making the day a success.