Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.03 of the 3 schools around An Clochán Liath get extra support for disadvantaged areas
DEIS, the extra support for schools serving disadvantaged areas, reaches 100% of the schools around An Clochán Liath, above both Co. Donegal’s towns (38%) and Irish towns (35%). Rosses Community School, with 509 pupils, is the only secondary school within 3 km. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never graded or ranked.
Every school in the town or within 3 km of its outline, from the Department of Education’s lists for 2025/26; Ireland’s figures are every school in the lists.
What stands out about An Clochán Liath’s schools
Extra support for many schools
Many schools here are in DEIS, which gives schools in disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and help; across Ireland, 30% of schools are. In DEIS: Rosses Community School (509), Scoil Chróine (265) and Scoil Roisin (51). Who runs them ↓
One school growing fast
The fastest-growing school here is Rosses Community School: 404 pupils in 2019/20, 509 now. Getting a place ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs An Clochán Liath’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of An Clochán Liath’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Raphoe (2) and Donegal ETB & Bishop of Raphoe (1). 3 of the 3 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.
The 3 schools in and around An Clochán Liath
Every school in An Clochán Liath or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. There are no letters or results on these cards, because Ireland publishes none school by school.
Where the 3 schools in and around An Clochán Liath 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 An Clochán Liath’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 An Clochán Liath
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around An Clochán Liath teaches every subject through Irish.
Who An Clochán Liath’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside Co. Donegal’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 An Clochán Liath | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 100% | 62% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 10% | 6% |
| Girls | 46% | 49% | 49% |
100% of the pupils around An Clochán Liath are at a DEIS school, more than the 27% across Ireland (62% in Co. Donegal). The biggest difference from Ireland is in pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here, 6% there. Of the DEIS schools here, Rosses Community School is the biggest: 509 pupils.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rosses Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | 509 | 46% | ✓ | |
| Scoil ChróinePrimary | 265 | 48% | ✓ | |
| Scoil RoisinPrimary | 51 | 41% | ✓ |
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.
The 2 patrons of An Clochán Liath’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
The schools around An Clochán Liath answer to 2 patrons, and Bishop of Raphoe leads with 2 of the 3 schools and 38% of their pupils. An Education and Training Board runs one of them.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of RaphoeScoil Chróine, Scoil Roisin | Catholic | 2 | 316 |
| Donegal ETB & Bishop of RaphoeRosses | Inter-denominational | 1 | 509 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in An Clochán Liath
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, 1 of these 3 schools have grown by 5% or more and 1 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 An Clochán Liath’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
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 |
|---|---|
| Rosses Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil ChróinePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil RoisinPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of An Clochán Liath
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
2 post-primary schools are within 10 km of An Clochán Liath: one community school and one ETB school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rosses Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 509 | 0.6 km |
| Gairmscoil Mhic DiarmadaETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | Irish stream, DEIS, Island school | 61 | 9.3 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around An Clochán Liath
No special school is in or near An Clochán Liath. 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.
An Clochán Liath beside the 124 other Irish towns of 900 to 1,700 people
Towns of a similar size, with the schools in or within 3 km of each; ordered by population, never ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tullyallen | 1,697 | 1 | 411 | 0 | 0% | 3.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Clifden | 1,259 | 2 | 730 | 0 | 100% | 1.2 km |
| Killybegs | 1,258 | 5 | 697 | 0 | 80% | 0.5 km |
| Kilpedder | 1,248 | 9 | 3,990 | 0 | 11% | 3 km |
| Whitegate | 1,248 | 2 | 391 | 0 | 0% | 5.2 km |
| An Clochán Liath | 1,247 | 3 | 825 | 0 | 100% | 0.6 km |
| Kilmacanogue | 1,240 | 11 | 2,706 | 1 | 18% | 2.2 km |
| Croom | 1,240 | 2 | 990 | 0 | 100% | 1 km |
| Drumshanbo | 1,240 | 2 | 752 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Askeaton | 1,236 | 2 | 426 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Clarinbridge | 905 | 2 | 451 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
Among the 124 other towns, 39 have more pupils at their schools than An Clochán Liath does. 14 of the 125 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around An Clochán Liath
Pupils every September at the schools in or within 3 km of the town, each counted at today’s site.
The schools in and around An Clochán Liath had 800 pupils in 2015/16 and 825 in 2025/26. Rosses Community School grew most: +26% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around An Clochán Liath
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.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in An Clochán Liath 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 An Clochán Liath
How many schools are there in An Clochán Liath?
In An Clochán Liath or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 825 pupils between them.
Are there schools in An Clochán Liath that teach through Irish?
None in An Clochán Liath 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 An Clochán Liath?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in An Clochán Liath?
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 An Clochán Liath?
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).