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Former Church of Ireland Church, WatergrasshillPhoto: Jonathan Thacker · CC BY-SA 2.0
–Not graded
Schools in and around Watergrasshill · Department of Education

Around Watergrasshill, only 0% of schools are in DEIS, fewer than around Co. Cork’s towns or Irish towns

For Watergrasshill, that is below both Co. Cork’s towns (37%) and Irish towns (35%). Watergrasshill N.S. is a primary with 391 pupils. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.

Schools
1
in or within 3 km of Watergrasshill
1 inside the town itself
Pupils
391
+3% since 2019/20
Ireland: +5%
Teach through Irish
0 of 1
teach every subject through Irish
Ireland: 8%
DEIS
0 of 1
get extra support for disadvantaged areas
Ireland: 30%
School Grade
Not graded
no school results are published (Education Act 1998, s.53)

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.

Map

Where the school in or near Watergrasshill 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 Watergrasshill’s outline; schools within 3 km of it count.

PrimaryPost-primarySpecialSize: pupilsCatholicChurch of Ireland and other ProtestantMulti- and inter-denominationalOther faiths

Places from the Department of Education’s school lists (its own coordinates for all but a handful); map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Language

Teaching through Irish in and around Watergrasshill

How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.

All-Irish 00%
Partly in Irish 1100%
English-medium 00%

None of the 1 schools in and around Watergrasshill teaches every subject through Irish.

Who runs them

Who runs Watergrasshill’s schools

Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.

1 of Watergrasshill’s 1 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Cork & Ross (1). None of the 1 is in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas (30% across Ireland).

CatholicChurch of Ireland and other ProtestantMulti- and inter-denominationalOther faiths
Primary schools 1 school100%
All of Watergrasshill’s schools 1 school100%
Ireland 3,938 schools80%

Department of Education school lists: ethos 2025/26, patron 2024/25 (the 2025/26 lists don’t give it). DEIS list 2025/26.

Getting a place

How children get a place in Watergrasshill

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.

Every school

The school in and around Watergrasshill

Every school in Watergrasshill or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. No letters, no results: Irish schools aren’t ranked one by one.

Primary schools1 in Watergrasshill
Inspections

Inspection reports for Watergrasshill’s schools

Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated

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 the school should do next. They give no overall grade, so none is shown here; the school below links its own.

SchoolReports on gov.ie
Watergrasshill N.S.PrimaryInspection reports ↗

Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.

Post-primary choices

Post-primary schools within reach of Watergrasshill

All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school

Families in Watergrasshill have 2 post-primary schools within 10 km: one voluntary secondary school and one ETB school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.

Within 10 km
2
post-primary schools; 0 in the area
Nearest
8.8 km
Coláiste an Chroí Naofa
SchoolTakesAlsoPupilsAway
Coláiste an Chroí NaofaVoluntary secondary · CatholicGirls and boys–4618.8 km
Glanmire Community CollegeETB · Inter-denominationalGirls and boys–1,1419.2 km

Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.

Special needs

Special schools and classes around Watergrasshill

No special school is in or near Watergrasshill. 1 of the 1 primary schools has 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.

Towns its size

Watergrasshill beside the 90 other Irish towns of 1,300 to 2,500 people

Towns of a similar size, with the schools in or within 3 km of each; ordered by population, never ranked

TownPeopleSchoolsPupilsAll-IrishDEIS schoolsNearest post-primary
Castleconnell2,488253600%5.9 km
…
Ballivor1,87022480100%9.7 km
Cootehill1,85641,198025%1.3 km
Castlebridge1,850345900%5.1 km
Oughterard1,8462730050%0.6 km
Watergrasshill1,840139100%8.8 km
Derrinturn1,83734260100%8.3 km
Collooney1,7973580033%3.4 km
Rosslare1,79535120100%8.7 km
Kilmallock1,76127860100%0.3 km
…
Ferns1,3172324050%10 km

More pupils attend the schools around 75 of the other 90 towns than around Watergrasshill. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 13 of the 91.

Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.

Pupils over time

Pupil numbers around Watergrasshill

Each September’s pupils at every school in or within 3 km of the town, counted where the school stands today.

The schools in and around Watergrasshill had 324 pupils in 2015/16 and 391 in 2025/26.

Pupils at schools in and around Watergrasshill

02004006002015/162018/192021/222025/26Pupils

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.

Neighbours

Schools in the towns around Watergrasshill

Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.

RathcormacRiverstownGlanmireBallyvolaneGlounthauneMayfieldRathcormacRiverstownGlanmireBallyvolaneGlounthauneMayfieldWatergrasshill
TownSchoolsPupilsAll-IrishDEIS schoolsNearest post-primary
Watergrasshill139100%8.8 km
Rathcormac
8.5 km
371500%6.6 km
Riverstown
9 km
124,14638%0.8 km
Glanmire
10 km
277,395526%0.9 km
Ballyvolane
11 km
6016,728845%1.9 km
Glounthaune
11 km
3210,210419%3.7 km
Mayfield
12 km
6519,177645%0.3 km

Ballyvolane has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 8. The roll around Watergrasshill moved +3% since 2019/20; nearby, Glounthaune grew most (+10%) and Rathcormac least (−5%).

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Which schools count. Every school in Watergrasshill 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 Watergrasshill

How many schools are there in Watergrasshill?

In Watergrasshill or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school, with 391 pupils between them.

Are there schools in Watergrasshill that teach through Irish?

None in Watergrasshill or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.

Is there a secondary school in Watergrasshill?

Not in Watergrasshill or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Coláiste an Chroí Naofa, 8.8 km away.

What is the best school in Watergrasshill?

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 Watergrasshill?

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).