Photo: Christopher Kirk · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Virginia, only 0% of schools are in DEIS, fewer than around Co. Cavan’s towns or Irish towns
In the comparison, Virginia comes below both Co. Cavan’s towns (24%) and Irish towns (35%). Virginia College, with 809 pupils, is the only secondary school 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.
Schools in the town or within 3 km of its outline, Department of Education lists for 2025/26; the Ireland figures cover all schools listed.
The 3 schools in and around Virginia
Each school in or within 3 km of Virginia links to a page of its own. These schools carry no letter or result: Ireland doesn’t release them school by school.
Where the 3 schools in and around Virginia 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 Virginia’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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Virginia
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Virginia teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Virginia’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Cavan’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
DEIS by stage: pupils at DEIS schools
| Share of pupils | Around Virginia | Co. Cavan | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 25% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 1% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
Around Virginia, 0% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 25% in Co. Cavan. Where this area differs most from Ireland is pupils at all-Irish schools, at 0% against 6%.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia CollegePost-primary · ETB | 809 | 48% | ||
| Virginia Mxd N.S.Primary | 463 | 49% | ||
| Cnoc an TeampaillPrimary | 158 | 42% |
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.
Who runs Virginia’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Virginia’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kilmore (2) and Cavan & Monaghan ETB (1). None of the 3 is 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.
The 2 patrons of Virginia’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
The schools around Virginia answer to 2 patrons, and Bishop of Kilmore leads with 2 of the 3 schools and 43% of their pupils. One is an ETB school.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of KilmoreVirginia Mxd, Cnoc an Teampaill | Catholic | 2 | 621 |
| Cavan & Monaghan ETBVirginia College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 809 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Virginia
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
Since 2019/20, 3 of these 3 schools have grown by 5% or more and 0 have shrunk as much; across Ireland the number of 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.
Inspection reports for Virginia’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
Inspectors visit every kind of school. Whole-school evaluations look at teaching and learning, leadership and management; subject inspections look at one subject; follow-through inspections check whether earlier advice was taken. Each report is published 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 3 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Virginia CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Virginia Mxd N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Cnoc an TeampaillPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Virginia
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Within 10 km of Virginia there are 3 post-primary schools: 2 ETB schools and one voluntary secondary school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 809 | 0.6 km |
| St Clare's CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 578 | 8.1 km |
| St Oliver Post PrimaryETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 630 | 8.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Virginia
No special school is in or near Virginia. 2 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.
Virginia beside the 90 other Irish towns of 2,200 to 4,300 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Luke's | 4,278 | 70 | 20,531 | 6 | 51% | 0.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Annacotty | 3,398 | 8 | 4,443 | 1 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Tower | 3,300 | 6 | 2,638 | 1 | 17% | 3.2 km |
| Rathangan | 3,263 | 3 | 1,345 | 0 | 33% | 0.6 km |
| Crosshaven | 3,263 | 5 | 1,057 | 0 | 20% | 0.5 km |
| Virginia | 3,211 | 3 | 1,430 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Ballinrobe | 3,148 | 3 | 1,391 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Taylor's Hill | 3,141 | 30 | 10,795 | 4 | 23% | 0.4 km |
| Blackpool | 3,124 | 65 | 18,866 | 5 | 52% | 0.6 km |
| Kinnegad | 3,064 | 1 | 413 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Abbeyfeale | 2,206 | 5 | 1,060 | 0 | 40% | 0.7 km |
Among the 90 other towns, 50 have more pupils at their schools than Virginia does. 50 of the 91 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Virginia
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Virginia had 1,253 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,430 in 2025/26. Cnoc an Teampaill grew most: +19% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Virginia
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 Virginia
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | 3 | 1,430 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Ballyjamesduff 8.5 km | 2 | 1,000 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Oldcastle 8.9 km | 2 | 852 | 0 | 50% | 0.4 km |
| Mullagh 9.4 km | 2 | 450 | 0 | 0% | 9.3 km |
| Bailieborough 11 km | 5 | 1,420 | 0 | 20% | 0.1 km |
| Kells 18 km | 6 | 2,154 | 0 | 0% | 0.6 km |
Since 2019/20 the pupils around Virginia changed by +11%; among its neighbours, Bailieborough’s grew most (+4%) and Mullagh’s least (−10%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Virginia 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 Virginia
How many schools are there in Virginia?
In Virginia or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,430 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Virginia that teach through Irish?
None in Virginia or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Virginia?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Virginia?
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 Virginia?
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).