Photo: Andreas F. Borchert · CC BY-SA 4.0Most post-primaries around Ballinasloe take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Galway’s towns and Irish towns
On this, Ballinasloe is below both Co. Galway’s towns (33%) and Irish towns (39%). 3 of its 6 schools are in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas, against 30% across Ireland. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results 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 Ballinasloe’s schools
More all-Irish schools than most places
Families here have more choice of a school that teaches every subject through Irish than in most of Ireland, where 8% of schools do. The school is S.N. Ui Cheithearnaigh (193). Language ↓
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: Clonfert College (926), Scoil an Chroi Naofa (293) and S.N. Ui Cheithearnaigh (193). Who runs them ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Teaching through Irish in and around Ballinasloe
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
1 of Ballinasloe’s 6 schools teach every subject through Irish: S.N. Ui Cheithearnaigh.
Who runs Ballinasloe’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
5 of Ballinasloe’s 6 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Clonfert (4) and Ability West (1). 3 of the 6 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 6 schools in and around Ballinasloe
Each school in or within 3 km of Ballinasloe links to a page of its own. Results by school aren’t published in Ireland, so the cards carry none.
Where the 6 schools in and around Ballinasloe 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 Ballinasloe’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.
Who Ballinasloe’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Galway’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 Ballinasloe | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 70% | 21% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 10% | 14% | 6% |
| Girls | 50% | 49% | 49% |
More of the pupils around Ballinasloe are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 70% against 27% (Co. Galway: 21%). Clonfert College, with 926 pupils, is the largest school here in DEIS.
Each of the 6 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.N. Muire Gan SmalPrimary | 445 | 51% | ||
| Scoil an Chroi NaofaPrimary | 293 | 49% | ✓ | |
| S.N. Ui CheithearnaighPrimary | 193 | 54% | ✓ | ✓ |
| St. Teresa's Special SchoolSpecial | 47 | 34% | ||
| Clonfert CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 926 | 50% | ✓ | |
| Scoil Mhuire,Primary | 115 | 45% |
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 Ballinasloe’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
The schools around Ballinasloe answer to 3 patrons, and Bishop of Clonfert leads with 4 of the 6 schools and 52% of their pupils.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of ClonfertS.N. Muire Gan Smal, Scoil an Chroi Naofa, S.N. Ui Cheithearnaigh, Scoil Mhuire, | Catholic | 4 | 1,046 |
| patron not listedClonfert College | Catholic | 1 | 926 |
| Ability WestSt. Teresa's Special School | Other | 1 | 47 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Ballinasloe
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, 1 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 Ballinasloe’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
Reports come from whole-school evaluations (teaching, learning, leadership and management), subject inspections and follow-through visits that check earlier advice; gov.ie publishes each one with the school’s response.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 6 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| S.N. Muire Gan SmalPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil an Chroi NaofaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Ui CheithearnaighPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St. Teresa's Special SchoolSpecial | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Clonfert CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Mhuire,Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Ballinasloe
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Ballinasloe is Clonfert College, a voluntary secondary school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clonfert CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | DEIS | 926 | 1.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Ballinasloe
St. Teresa's Special School is the special school here, with 47 pupils. 2 of the 4 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.
Ballinasloe beside the 102 other Irish towns of 4,600 to 8,900 people
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km, listed by population: Ireland publishes no results, so none is ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandyford | 8,844 | 67 | 27,808 | 8 | 8% | 0.9 km |
| … | ||||||
| Fermoy | 6,720 | 12 | 3,461 | 1 | 17% | 0.2 km |
| Santry | 6,710 | 64 | 20,947 | 7 | 64% | 1.7 km |
| Dunshaughlin | 6,644 | 5 | 2,399 | 1 | 0% | 0.4 km |
| Kells | 6,608 | 6 | 2,154 | 0 | 0% | 0.6 km |
| Ballinasloe | 6,597 | 6 | 2,019 | 1 | 50% | 1.8 km |
| Ballytruckle | 6,563 | 32 | 12,776 | 3 | 41% | 1 km |
| Roscommon | 6,555 | 7 | 2,589 | 1 | 29% | 0.7 km |
| Castleknock | 6,355 | 77 | 27,912 | 3 | 51% | 0.1 km |
| Loughrea | 6,322 | 6 | 2,361 | 1 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Athenry | 4,603 | 5 | 3,133 | 2 | 0% | 0.4 km |
Among the 102 other towns, 92 have more pupils at their schools than Ballinasloe does. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 90 of the 103.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Ballinasloe
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 Ballinasloe had 2,045 pupils in 2015/16 and 2,019 in 2025/26, fewer than before. St. Teresa's Special School grew most: +74% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Ballinasloe
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 Ballinasloe 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 Ballinasloe
How many schools are there in Ballinasloe?
In Ballinasloe or within 3 km of it: 4 primary schools, 1 secondary school and 1 special school, with 2,019 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ballinasloe that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: S.N. Ui Cheithearnaigh teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Ballinasloe?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Ballinasloe?
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 Ballinasloe?
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).