Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0The schools around Convoy have grown: pupils +24% since 2019/20, more than around Co. Donegal’s towns or Irish towns
That puts Convoy above both Co. Donegal’s towns (+7%) and Irish towns (+4%). Its schools have 1,290 pupils, 24% more than in 2019/20. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never graded or ranked.
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 Convoy’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: Deele College (840), Scoil Bhride (192) and Scoil Adhamhnain (158). Who runs them ↓
More pupils every year
Pupil numbers at the schools here have grown faster than across Ireland (+5% since 2019/20), so classes and new places are a question worth asking. Pupils over time ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs Convoy’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Convoy’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Raphoe (2), Joint patronage between Bishop of Derry & Raphoe COI and the Presbytery of Derry & Donegal (1) and Donegal ETB (1). 3 of the 4 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.
Pupil numbers around Convoy
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 Convoy had 987 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,290 in 2025/26. Deele College grew most: +39% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Convoy
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.
The 4 schools in and around Convoy
Each school in or within 3 km of Convoy links to a page of its own. You won’t find letters or results below: Ireland publishes none for single schools.
Where the 4 schools in and around Convoy 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 Convoy’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 Convoy
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 4 schools in and around Convoy teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Convoy’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against 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 Convoy | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 92% | 62% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 10% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
More of the pupils around Convoy are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 92% against 27% (Co. Donegal: 62%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%. The biggest school in DEIS is Deele College (840 pupils).
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil BhridePrimary | 192 | 49% | ✓ | |
| Comhscoil Chonmha S.N.Primary | 100 | 54% | ||
| Scoil AdhamhnainPrimary | 158 | 47% | ✓ | |
| Deele CollegePost-primary · ETB | 840 | 47% | ✓ |
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 Convoy’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
Bishop of Raphoe is patron of 2 of the 4 schools around Convoy, which teach 27% of their pupils; 3 patrons run them in all. An Education and Training Board runs one of them.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of RaphoeScoil Bhride, Scoil Adhamhnain | Catholic | 2 | 350 |
| Donegal ETBDeele College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 840 |
| Joint patronage between Bishop of Derry & Raphoe COI and the Presbytery of Derry & DonegalComhscoil Chonmha | Church of Ireland | 1 | 100 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Convoy
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
2 schools here have grown by 5% or more since 2019/20, 0 have shrunk by as much, out of 4; across Ireland: +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 Convoy’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
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 each school should do next. They give no overall grade, so none is shown here; the 4 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Scoil BhridePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Comhscoil Chonmha S.N.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil AdhamhnainPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Deele CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Convoy
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Families in Convoy have 4 post-primary schools within 10 km: 2 ETB schools, one comprehensive school 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deele CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 840 | 4 km |
| The Royal and Prior SchoolComprehensive · Church of Ireland | Girls and boys | DEIS, Boarding | 609 | 4.9 km |
| Finn Valley CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 424 | 9.5 km |
| St Columbas CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 983 | 9.7 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Convoy
No special school is in or near Convoy. 2 of the 3 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.
Convoy beside the 109 other Irish towns of 1,200 to 2,300 people
Schools in or within 3 km of each town, by population; none is ranked, as Ireland publishes no results
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balrothery | 2,282 | 16 | 7,860 | 2 | 31% | 1.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Dunmore East | 1,731 | 1 | 196 | 0 | 0% | 9.1 km |
| Millstreet | 1,722 | 4 | 703 | 0 | 0% | 0.9 km |
| Ballymahon | 1,714 | 5 | 1,663 | 0 | 40% | 0.3 km |
| Ballymote | 1,711 | 3 | 694 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Convoy | 1,702 | 4 | 1,290 | 0 | 75% | 4 km |
| Tullyallen | 1,697 | 1 | 411 | 0 | 0% | 3.7 km |
| Portumna | 1,690 | 2 | 741 | 0 | 50% | 0.2 km |
| Castledermot | 1,685 | 2 | 678 | 0 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| Allenwood | 1,685 | 4 | 802 | 0 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Clonee | 1,205 | 25 | 12,320 | 2 | 28% | 1.3 km |
Of these 109 other towns, 18 count more pupils at their schools than Convoy. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 16 of the 110.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Convoy
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convoy | 4 | 1,290 | 0 | 75% | 4 km |
| Raphoe 4 km | 4 | 1,792 | 0 | 100% | 0.2 km |
| Ballybofey-Stranorlar 10 km | 7 | 2,400 | 0 | 57% | 0.6 km |
| Letterkenny 12 km | 15 | 6,825 | 2 | 20% | 0.4 km |
| Lifford 12 km | 3 | 303 | 0 | 100% | 8 km |
| Newtowncunningham 18 km | 2 | 280 | 0 | 50% | 14 km |
Letterkenny has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Convoy changed by +24%; among its neighbours, Raphoe’s grew most (+20%) and Newtowncunningham’s least (−11%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Convoy 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 Convoy
How many schools are there in Convoy?
In Convoy or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,290 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Convoy that teach through Irish?
None in Convoy 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 Convoy?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Convoy?
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 Convoy?
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).