Photo: Sarah777 · CC BY-SA 2.0The nearest secondary school to Rathvilly is 6.3 km away
Teaching through Irish: 0% of the schools around Rathvilly, close to Co. Carlow’s towns (0%) and below Irish towns (8%). All 2 of its schools are Catholic: there is no other kind within 3 km. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
Counted from the Department of Education’s 2025/26 lists: every school in the town or within 3 km of it, against every school in Ireland.
Where the 2 schools in and around Rathvilly are
Each school where the official list places it, shaded by who runs it and sized by pupils; squares are secondary schools, triangles special schools. The dashed shape is Rathvilly’s outline; schools within 3 km of it count.
Places from the Department of Education’s school lists (its own coordinates for all but a handful); map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Who runs Rathvilly’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Rathvilly’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (2). 1 of the 2 are in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas (30% across Ireland).
Department of Education school lists: ethos 2025/26, patron 2024/25 (the 2025/26 lists don’t give it). DEIS list 2025/26.
Teaching through Irish in and around Rathvilly
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 2 schools in and around Rathvilly teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Rathvilly’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Carlow’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Rathvilly | Co. Carlow | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 83% | 37% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 43% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 83% of the pupils around Rathvilly, a larger share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Carlow: 37%). The biggest difference from Ireland is in girls: 43% here, 49% there. Of the DEIS schools here, St Patricks N.S. is the biggest: 207 pupils.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Patricks N.S.Primary | 207 | 44% | ✓ | |
| S.N. Fiontain NaofaPrimary | 41 | 39% |
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary): enrolments by sex and the DEIS list. Shares are of pupils, not of schools; a county’s are the schools listed with its towns.
How children get a place in Rathvilly
Starting primary school
Children can start primary school once they are four, and must be in school by six. Families apply to each school directly. Every school publishes an admission policy and a yearly admission notice; a school with more applicants than places admits on the criteria in its policy. Since the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, a Catholic or other majority-faith primary school can’t put baptised children first; a school of a minority faith still can, to keep its ethos.
Moving to secondary school
Children move to post-primary school at about twelve, after sixth class. Again, families apply to each school, usually a year or more ahead, and an oversubscribed school admits on its published criteria, often brothers and sisters and its feeder primary schools.
Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018; each school’s admission policy and notice are on its own website.
Which schools are growing
Of these 2 schools, 1 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 0 have lost as much; Ireland’s pupils changed by +5%.
Department of Education enrolments at 30 September, 2019/20 and 2025/26 (preliminary). No capacity is published, so how full a school is can’t be shown.
The 2 schools in and around Rathvilly
Here are the schools in Rathvilly or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Ireland publishes no school-by-school results, which is why these cards have no letters.
Inspection reports for Rathvilly’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
Each school is visited by inspectors from time to time, for a whole-school evaluation of teaching, learning and leadership, for one subject, or to follow up earlier advice, and every report is posted on gov.ie with the school’s response.
The reports describe what inspectors saw and what each school should do next. They give no overall grade, so none is shown here; the 2 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| St Patricks N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Fiontain NaofaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Rathvilly
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Families in Rathvilly have 4 post-primary schools within 10 km: 3 ETB schools and one community school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil ChonglaisETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 452 | 6.3 km |
| Tullow Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 901 | 9.3 km |
| Colaiste LorcainETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 334 | 9.9 km |
| Coláiste EoinETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 358 | 10 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Rathvilly
No special school is in or near Rathvilly. 1 of the 2 primary schools have special classes for children who need more support. Their cards ↑
Special schools and primary schools with special classes as the Department lists them; the National Council for Special Education places pupils in special classes.
Rathvilly beside the 118 other Irish towns of 800 to 1,400 people
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km, listed by population: Ireland publishes no results, so none is ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moville | 1,390 | 5 | 1,100 | 1 | 40% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballinamore | 1,112 | 2 | 573 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 km |
| Buttevant | 1,080 | 2 | 802 | 0 | 100% | 0.6 km |
| Curragh Camp | 1,076 | 8 | 1,733 | 1 | 38% | 1.2 km |
| Milford | 1,076 | 3 | 1,645 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Rathvilly | 1,074 | 2 | 248 | 0 | 50% | 6.3 km |
| Dunlavin | 1,074 | 3 | 1,103 | 0 | 33% | 0.6 km |
| Granard | 1,058 | 6 | 1,295 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
| Kilmeage | 1,054 | 2 | 357 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| Newmarket | 1,052 | 2 | 224 | 0 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballon | 801 | 1 | 239 | 0 | 0% | 7.5 km |
Among the 118 other towns, 92 have more pupils at their schools than Rathvilly does. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 14 of the 119.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Rathvilly
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Rathvilly had 225 pupils in 2015/16 and 248 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Rathvilly
Department of Education enrolments at 30 September each year, 2015/16 to 2025/26 (preliminary), for every school placed in the area today; schools that have since closed or merged count where they stood.
Schools in the towns around Rathvilly
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rathvilly | 2 | 248 | 0 | 50% | 6.3 km |
| Baltinglass 6.2 km | 3 | 912 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Tullow 9 km | 4 | 1,339 | 0 | 75% | 0.5 km |
| Castledermot 10 km | 2 | 678 | 0 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| Carlow 16 km | 19 | 7,832 | 2 | 42% | 0.7 km |
| Tinahely 19 km | 3 | 272 | 0 | 0% | 9.7 km |
Carlow has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Of Rathvilly’s neighbours, Tullow saw the most growth in pupils since 2019/20 (+6%) and Castledermot the least (−12%); Rathvilly itself: +5%.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Rathvilly or within 3 km of its outline, as the Department places it: families here use them. Schools further out are on the map of each school’s own page.
- The kinds of school. Primary schools take children from junior infants to sixth class, about ages 4 to 12. Post-primary schools teach the Junior and Leaving Certificate, about ages 12 to 18: voluntary secondary schools (mostly with a religious patron), ETB schools and community colleges run by an Education and Training Board, and community and comprehensive schools. Special schools teach children with particular needs.
- Teaching through Irish. All-Irish: every subject taught through Irish, in the Gaeltacht or, outside it, a Gaelscoil or Gaelcholáiste. Partly in Irish: an Irish stream (some classes entirely through Irish) or some subjects through Irish. Every other school teaches Irish as a subject.
- DEIS. DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) gives schools serving disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and support; the Department decides which schools are in it.
- Ethos and patron. Most Irish schools are owned by a patron, mostly a church; the patron sets the school’s ethos. Multi-denominational schools (Educate Together, many ETB schools) teach children of every faith and none together.
- No grade. Section 53 of the Education Act 1998 lets the Minister refuse to release information that would allow schools’ exam results to be compared, and no results are published school by school. So Ireland’s schools have no letters and its towns no School Grade; nothing on this page ranks them.
- What isn’t here. What the UK and French pages show from results, these can’t: results charts, results against pupils’ backgrounds and towns ranked by their schools (no published results), and how full each school is (no capacity is published). Every post-primary school teaches to the Leaving Certificate, so there is no sixth-form split to show.
- Inspections. The Inspectorate’s reports are linked from each school’s page. They give no overall grade, so none is shown.
- The year. The 2025/26 lists are the Department’s preliminary release; numbers can change a little in the final lists.
Questions about schools in Rathvilly
How many schools are there in Rathvilly?
In Rathvilly or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools, with 248 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Rathvilly that teach through Irish?
None in Rathvilly or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Rathvilly?
Not in Rathvilly or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Scoil Chonglais, 6.3 km away.
What is the best school in Rathvilly?
We don’t say. Ireland publishes no exam results school by school, and section 53 of the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them; a ranking would rest on guesses. Each school’s page has its own facts and a link to its inspection reports, and visiting the schools you are weighing is still the best guide.
How do I get a place at a school in Rathvilly?
Apply to each school directly: every school publishes an admission policy and a yearly admission notice with its dates. If it has more applicants than places, it admits on the criteria in its policy.
Sources: Department of Education, school lists 2025/26 (preliminary) and enrolments since 2015/16, CC BY 4.0 · one school placed with OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).