Photo: Rossographer · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Carndonagh, only 0% of schools teach through Irish, fewer than around Co. Donegal’s towns or Irish towns
Measured that way, Carndonagh is below both Co. Donegal’s towns (13%) and Irish towns (8%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Carndonagh Community School, has 1,118 pupils. 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.
What stands out about Carndonagh’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: Carndonagh Community School (1,118), Scoil Naomh Colmchille (186), Scoil Naomh Padraig (163) and Scoil Chroí Naofa, Carndomhnach (124), and 3 more. Who runs them ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs Carndonagh’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
5 of Carndonagh’s 7 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Derry (5), Donegal ETB & Bishop of Derry (1) and Bishop of Derry & Raphoe COI (1). 7 of the 7 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 7 schools in and around Carndonagh
Here are the schools in Carndonagh or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. You won’t find letters or results below: Ireland publishes none for single schools.
Where the 7 schools in and around Carndonagh 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 Carndonagh’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 Carndonagh
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 7 schools in and around Carndonagh teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Carndonagh’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 Carndonagh | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 100% | 62% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 10% | 6% |
| Girls | 50% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 100% of the pupils around Carndonagh, a larger share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Donegal: 62%). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%. The largest DEIS school here is Carndonagh Community School, with 1,118 pupils.
Each of the 7 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carndonagh Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | 1,118 | 51% | ✓ | |
| Scoil Naomh PadraigPrimary | 163 | 7% | ✓ | |
| Scoil Chroí Naofa, CarndomhnachPrimary | 124 | 98% | ✓ | |
| S.N. DonaighPrimary | 33 | 52% | ✓ | |
| Scoil Naomh ColmchillePrimary | 186 | 45% | ✓ | |
| Glentogher Con N.S.Primary | 13 | 62% | ✓ | |
| Naomh BridhidPrimary | 92 | 62% | ✓ |
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 3 patrons of Carndonagh’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
Of the 7 schools around Carndonagh, 5 have Bishop of Derry as patron, teaching 33% of the pupils; 3 patrons in all. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of DerryScoil Naomh Colmchille, Scoil Naomh Padraig, Scoil Chroí Naofa, Carndomhnach, Naomh Bridhid, Glentogher Con | Catholic | 5 | 578 |
| Donegal ETB & Bishop of DerryCarndonagh | Inter-denominational | 1 | 1,118 |
| Bishop of Derry & Raphoe COIS.N. Donaigh | Church of Ireland | 1 | 33 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Carndonagh
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 6 schools, 4 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 2 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.
Inspection reports for Carndonagh’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 7 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Carndonagh Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Naomh PadraigPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Chroí Naofa, CarndomhnachPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. DonaighPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Naomh ColmchillePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Glentogher Con N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Naomh BridhidPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Carndonagh
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Carndonagh is Carndonagh Community School, a community school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carndonagh Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 1,118 | 0.1 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Carndonagh
No special school is in or near Carndonagh. 1 of the 6 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.
Carndonagh beside the 84 other Irish towns of 1,900 to 3,700 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cahir | 3,679 | 2 | 1,300 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Sunday's Well | 2,807 | 69 | 20,909 | 6 | 52% | 0.5 km |
| Kanturk | 2,803 | 3 | 1,290 | 0 | 0% | 0.4 km |
| Blarney | 2,779 | 5 | 2,101 | 1 | 20% | 0.6 km |
| Ballyhaunis | 2,773 | 2 | 1,102 | 0 | 100% | 0.7 km |
| Carndonagh | 2,768 | 7 | 1,729 | 0 | 100% | 0.1 km |
| Kilbarry | 2,758 | 30 | 12,024 | 1 | 43% | 1.9 km |
| Claddagh | 2,755 | 31 | 11,252 | 4 | 32% | 0.5 km |
| Donegal | 2,749 | 6 | 1,791 | 1 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Decies | 2,713 | 44 | 11,294 | 1 | 64% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Banagher | 1,907 | 3 | 877 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 31 of the other 84 towns than around Carndonagh. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 38 of the 85.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Carndonagh
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 Carndonagh had 1,692 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,729 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Carndonagh
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 Carndonagh
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carndonagh | 7 | 1,729 | 0 | 100% | 0.1 km |
| Moville 16 km | 5 | 1,100 | 1 | 40% | 0.8 km |
| Buncrana 17 km | 7 | 2,583 | 2 | 43% | 0.6 km |
| Greencastle 18 km | 5 | 1,100 | 1 | 40% | 4 km |
Buncrana has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Pupils around Carndonagh: +4% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Moville led (+7%) and Buncrana trailed (+5%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Carndonagh 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 Carndonagh
How many schools are there in Carndonagh?
In Carndonagh or within 3 km of it: 6 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,729 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Carndonagh that teach through Irish?
None in Carndonagh 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 Carndonagh?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Carndonagh?
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 Carndonagh?
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).