Photo: Robert Bone · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Headford, only 0% of schools teach through Irish, fewer than around Co. Galway’s towns or Irish towns
That puts Headford below both Co. Galway’s towns (15%) and Irish towns (8%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Presentation College, has 857 pupils. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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.
Who runs Headford’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
4 of Headford’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Tuam (3) and CEIST (1). None of the 4 is 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 4 schools in and around Headford
Each school in or within 3 km of Headford links to a page of its own. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Where the 4 schools in and around Headford 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 Headford’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 Headford
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 4 schools in and around Headford teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Headford’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, 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 Headford | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 21% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 14% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 49% | 49% |
Around Headford, 0% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 21% in Co. Galway. Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%.
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 857 | 47% | ||
| Headford Primary SchoolPrimary | 137 | 53% | ||
| Scoil Naomh PadraigPrimary | 60 | 62% | ||
| Cloughanower N.S.Primary | 66 | 58% |
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 Headford’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
Archbishop of Tuam is patron of 3 of the 4 schools around Headford, which teach 23% of their pupils; 2 patrons run them in all.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of TuamHeadford Primary School, Cloughanower, Scoil Naomh Padraig | Catholic | 3 | 263 |
| CEISTPresentation College | Catholic | 1 | 857 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Headford
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 Headford’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 4 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Presentation CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Headford Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Naomh PadraigPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Cloughanower N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Headford
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 Headford is Presentation College, a voluntary secondary school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 857 | 0.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Headford beside the 124 other Irish towns of 900 to 1,700 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tullyallen | 1,697 | 1 | 411 | 0 | 0% | 3.7 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 |
| Headford | 1,235 | 4 | 1,120 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Carnew | 1,233 | 4 | 1,150 | 0 | 50% | 0.3 km |
| Castlebellingham-Kilsaran | 1,232 | 3 | 506 | 0 | 0% | 7.7 km |
| Kiltimagh | 1,232 | 2 | 963 | 0 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| Rathkeale | 1,231 | 5 | 971 | 0 | 60% | 0.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Clarinbridge | 905 | 2 | 451 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
Of these 124 other towns, 23 count more pupils at their schools than Headford. 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 Headford
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Headford had 1,061 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,120 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Headford
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 Headford
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headford | 4 | 1,120 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Oughterard 15 km | 2 | 730 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Maigh Cuilinn 16 km | 3 | 542 | 1 | 0% | 8.3 km |
| Tuam 17 km | 8 | 3,460 | 1 | 25% | 0.3 km |
| Baile Chláir 18 km | 3 | 1,800 | 0 | 33% | 0.8 km |
| Ballinrobe 19 km | 3 | 1,391 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
Maigh Cuilinn has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Pupils around Headford: +8% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Ballinrobe led (+17%) and Maigh Cuilinn trailed (−5%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Headford 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 Headford
How many schools are there in Headford?
In Headford or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,120 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Headford that teach through Irish?
None in Headford 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 Headford?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Headford?
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 Headford?
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).