Photo: BaronNethercross · CC BY-SA 4.0Fewer of the schools around Swords are in DEIS than around Co. Dublin’s towns or Irish towns: 13%
On this, Swords is below both Co. Dublin’s towns (40%) and Irish towns (35%). In or within 3 km of Swords, they have 10,901 pupils in all. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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.
What stands out about Swords’s schools
A wide choice at twelve
Families here can choose among 41 post-primary schools within 10 km of the town, of more than one kind; each admits on its own published policy, so applying to more than one is common. The nearest: Coláiste Choilm (0.8 km), St Finians Community College (0.9 km) and Loreto College (1 km). Post-primary choices ↓
Few schools in DEIS
DEIS, which gives schools in disadvantaged areas more teachers and money, includes just 3 of the 24 schools here, against 30% of schools across Ireland. In DEIS: St Finians Community College (671), Thornleigh Educate Together National School (313) and Mary Queen of Ireland N.S. (95). Who goes there ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Where the 24 schools in and around Swords 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 Swords’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 Swords
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
2 of Swords’s 24 schools teach every subject through Irish: Gaelscoil Bhrian Bóroimhe and Gaelscoil an Duinninigh.
Who Swords’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Dublin’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 Swords | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 10% | 28% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 8% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 49% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 25% | 38% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 18% | 6% |
Around Swords, 10% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 28% in Co. Dublin. The biggest difference from Ireland is in post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools: 0% here, 6% there. Of the DEIS schools here, St Finians Community College is the biggest: 671 pupils.
Each of the 24 schools
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.
Who runs Swords’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
12 of Swords’s 24 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Dublin (10), Dublin & Dún Laoghaire ETB (5) and Educate Together (4). 3 of the 24 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 patrons of Swords’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
7 patrons run the 24 schools around Swords; the largest, Archbishop of Dublin, has 10 of them and 40% of the pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs 5. Educate Together runs 4.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of DublinJohn Paul II, Holy Family Senior, Holy Family Junior, Brackenstown Senior, St Cronans Junior, Gaelscoil an Duinninigh, S.N. N Sailbheastar Nfa, S.N. Cholmcille C, S.N. Cholmille B, Mary Queen of Ireland | Catholic | 10 | 4,367 |
| Dublin & Dún Laoghaire ETBSwords, Fingal, St Finians, River Valley CNS, Broadmeadow Community | Multi-denominational, Inter-denominational | 5 | 2,710 |
| Educate TogetherMalahide & Portmarnock, Holywell Educate Together, Swords Educate Together NS, Thornleigh Educate Together | Multi-denominational | 4 | 2,016 |
| Archbishop of Dublin & Bishop of Glendalough COISt Andrews, Swords Borough | Church of Ireland | 2 | 291 |
| Loreto Education TrustLoreto College | Catholic | 1 | 655 |
| An Foras PátrúnachtaGaelscoil Bhrian Bóroimhe | Inter-denominational | 1 | 441 |
| Edmund Rice Schools TrustColáiste Choilm | Catholic | 1 | 421 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Swords
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, 2 of these 22 schools have grown by 5% or more and 16 have shrunk as much; across Ireland the number of pupils changed by +5%.
All 22 schools
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.
The 24 schools in and around Swords
Here are the schools in Swords or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. There are no letters or results on these cards, because Ireland publishes none school by school.
Inspection reports for Swords’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, 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; each of the 24 schools below links its own.
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Swords
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Within 10 km of Swords there are 41 post-primary schools: 23 voluntary secondary schools, 11 ETB schools, 5 community schools and 2 comprehensive schools. Of these, 15 are single-sex: 9 for girls and 6 for boys. Every subject is taught through Irish at 2 of them.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coláiste ChoilmVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 421 | 0.8 km |
| St Finians Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 671 | 0.9 km |
| Loreto CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 655 | 1 km |
| Fingal Community CollegeETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 864 | 1 km |
| Swords Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 952 | 1.4 km |
| Malahide & Portmarnock Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 696 | 2.6 km |
| Malahide Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,250 | 5.7 km |
| Donabate Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 799 | 6.8 km |
| Portmarnock Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 955 | 6.9 km |
| Coolock Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 205 | 7 km |
| Belmayne Educate Together Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 595 | 7.4 km |
| Trinity Comprehensive SchoolComprehensive · Catholic | Girls and boys | DEIS | 564 | 7.6 km |
All 41 post-primary schools within reach
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Our Lady Of Mercy CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | DEIS | 407 | 8 km |
| Chanel CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | DEIS | 451 | 8 km |
| Grange Community CollegeETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 553 | 8.1 km |
| Gaelcholáiste ReachrannETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | Gaelcholáiste | 453 | 8.2 km |
| The Donahies Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 488 | 8.2 km |
| Ellenfield Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 150 | 8.3 km |
| St. Aidan's C.B.S.Voluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 725 | 8.3 km |
| Mercy College CoolockVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | DEIS | 402 | 8.3 km |
| Beneavin De La Salle CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | DEIS | 585 | 8.5 km |
| St Kevins CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | DEIS | 503 | 8.7 km |
| St. David's CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | DEIS | 550 | 8.7 km |
| Árdscoil La SalleVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | DEIS | 289 | 8.8 km |
| Clonturk CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 968 | 8.8 km |
| St Marys Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | DEIS | 320 | 9 km |
| St Michaels Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | DEIS | 646 | 9.2 km |
| Maryfield CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 527 | 9.2 km |
| Coláiste EoinETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 257 | 9.4 km |
| Lusk Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,104 | 9.4 km |
| Dominican CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 799 | 9.4 km |
| New Cross CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | DEIS | 417 | 9.5 km |
| Scoil ChaitrionaVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | Gaelcholáiste, DEIS | 523 | 9.5 km |
| St Mary's Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | DEIS | 830 | 9.6 km |
| Manor House SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 652 | 9.7 km |
| St Marys Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 230 | 9.7 km |
| Rosmini Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 139 | 9.8 km |
| St Pauls CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 650 | 9.8 km |
| Árdscoil RísVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 563 | 9.9 km |
| Pobalscoil NeasáinCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 831 | 10 km |
| Mount Temple Comprehensive SchoolComprehensive · Church of Ireland | Girls and boys | – | 903 | 10 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Swords
No special school is in or near Swords. 10 of the 18 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.
Swords beside the 16 other Irish towns of 22,800 to 68,800 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drogheda | 44,135 | 29 | 14,360 | 2 | 28% | 0.5 km |
| Dundalk | 43,112 | 31 | 11,625 | 1 | 39% | 0.8 km |
| Swords | 40,776 | 24 | 10,901 | 2 | 13% | 0.8 km |
| Navan | 33,886 | 20 | 9,158 | 1 | 35% | 0.2 km |
| Bray | 33,512 | 30 | 9,081 | 4 | 27% | 0.7 km |
| Ennis | 27,923 | 18 | 7,595 | 1 | 33% | 0.3 km |
| Carlow | 27,351 | 19 | 7,832 | 2 | 42% | 0.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Athlone | 22,869 | 17 | 6,365 | 1 | 35% | 1.1 km |
Of the other 16 towns, 5 have more pupils at the schools around them than Swords. Every one of them has an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Swords
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Swords had 9,410 pupils in 2015/16 and 10,901 in 2025/26. Malahide & Portmarnock Secondary School grew most: +939% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Swords
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 Swords
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
Kilmore has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 10. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Swords changed by +6%; among its neighbours, Malahide’s grew most (+7%) and Kinsealy-Drinan’s least (−1%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Swords 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 Swords
How many schools are there in Swords?
In Swords or within 3 km of it: 18 primary schools and 6 secondary schools, with 10,901 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Swords that teach through Irish?
Yes, 2: Gaelscoil Bhrian Bóroimhe and Gaelscoil an Duinninigh teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Swords?
No: all 6 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Swords?
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 Swords?
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).