Photo: P L Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Whitegate, only 0% of schools are in DEIS, fewer than around Co. Clare’s towns or Irish towns
In the comparison, Whitegate comes below both Co. Clare’s towns (33%) and Irish towns (35%). Lakyle N.S. is a primary with 47 pupils. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never graded or ranked.
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 school in or near Whitegate is
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 Whitegate’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 Whitegate
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 1 schools in and around Whitegate teaches every subject through Irish.
Who runs Whitegate’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
1 of Whitegate’s 1 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Killaloe (1). None of the 1 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.
How children get a place in Whitegate
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.
The school in and around Whitegate
Every school in Whitegate or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Inspection reports for Whitegate’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
The Inspectorate inspects schools in several ways: a whole-school evaluation covers teaching, learning and how the school is led; a subject inspection looks at one subject; a follow-through checks on earlier advice. Reports go on gov.ie with the school’s reply.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; the link below opens the school’s own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Lakyle N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Whitegate
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
No post-primary school is within 10 km of Whitegate; the nearest is Mercy College, 11 km away.
Pupil numbers around Whitegate
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Whitegate had 61 pupils in 2015/16 and 47 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Whitegate
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 Whitegate
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitegate | 1 | 47 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| Nenagh 15 km | 11 | 3,044 | 1 | 0% | 0.1 km |
| Ballina 16 km | 4 | 1,336 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 km |
| Killaloe 17 km | 4 | 1,336 | 0 | 50% | 0.7 km |
| Borrisokane 17 km | 2 | 862 | 0 | 50% | 1 km |
| Portumna 19 km | 2 | 741 | 0 | 50% | 0.2 km |
Nenagh has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Whitegate 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 Whitegate
How many schools are there in Whitegate?
In Whitegate or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school, with 47 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Whitegate that teach through Irish?
None in Whitegate or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Whitegate?
Not in Whitegate or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Mercy College, 11 km away.
What is the best school in Whitegate?
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 Whitegate?
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).