Photo: Andreas F. Borchert · CC BY-SA 4.0Most post-primaries around Tuam take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Galway’s towns and Irish towns
That puts Tuam below both Co. Galway’s towns (33%) and Irish towns (39%). They have 3,460 pupils between them, in or within 3 km of Tuam. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never graded or ranked.
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.
Where the 8 schools in and around Tuam 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 Tuam’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 Tuam
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
1 of Tuam’s 8 schools teach every subject through Irish: Gaelscoil Iarfhlatha.
Who Tuam’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against 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 Tuam | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 36% | 21% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 6% | 14% | 6% |
| Girls | 51% | 49% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 0% | 9% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 0% | 6% |
More of the pupils around Tuam are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 36% against 27% (Co. Galway: 21%). Set beside Ireland, post-primary pupils at single-sex schools stand out most: 0% against 29%. The largest DEIS school here is Trinity Primary School, with 781 pupils.
Each of the 8 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinity Primary SchoolPrimary | 781 | 51% | ✓ | |
| High Cross CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 777 | 96% | ||
| St. Jarlaths CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 762 | 17% | ||
| Archbishop McHale CollegePost-primary · ETB | 479 | 34% | ✓ | |
| Gaelscoil IarfhlathaPrimary | 223 | 50% | ✓ | |
| Tuam Educate Together National SchoolPrimary | 195 | 53% | ||
| St. Oliver's Child Education and Development CentreSpecial | 40 | 43% | ||
| Ceathru na nGarrdhantaPrimary | 203 | 43% |
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 Tuam’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
5 of Tuam’s 8 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Tuam (3), CEIST (1) and Galway & Roscommon ETB (1). 2 of the 8 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 patrons of Tuam’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
Archbishop of Tuam is patron of 3 of the 8 schools around Tuam, which teach 50% of their pupils; 6 patrons run them in all. An Education and Training Board runs one of them. Educate Together runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of TuamTrinity Primary School, St. Jarlaths College, Ceathru na nGarrdhanta | Catholic | 3 | 1,746 |
| CEISTHigh Cross College | Catholic | 1 | 777 |
| Galway & Roscommon ETBArchbishop McHale College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 479 |
| An Foras PátrúnachtaGaelscoil Iarfhlatha | Catholic | 1 | 223 |
| Educate TogetherTuam Educate Together | Multi-denominational | 1 | 195 |
| Ability WestSt. Oliver's Child Education and Development Centre | Other | 1 | 40 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Tuam
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, 3 of these 6 schools have grown by 5% or more and 0 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.
The 8 schools in and around Tuam
Here are the schools in Tuam or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. These schools carry no letter or result: Ireland doesn’t release them school by school.
Inspection reports for Tuam’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
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 8 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Trinity Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| High Cross CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St. Jarlaths CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Archbishop McHale CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Gaelscoil IarfhlathaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Tuam Educate Together National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St. Oliver's Child Education and Development CentreSpecial | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Ceathru na nGarrdhantaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Tuam
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Within 10 km of Tuam there are 3 post-primary schools: 2 voluntary secondary schools and one ETB school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Cross CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 777 | 0.3 km |
| St. Jarlaths CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 762 | 0.6 km |
| Archbishop McHale CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 479 | 0.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Tuam
St. Oliver's Child Education and Development Centre is the special school here, with 40 pupils. 1 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.
Tuam beside the 83 other Irish towns of 6,800 to 13,000 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fettercairn | 12,970 | 72 | 25,995 | 8 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Cabra West | 9,786 | 132 | 34,456 | 10 | 63% | 0.2 km |
| Kilmore | 9,786 | 110 | 32,817 | 10 | 42% | 0.6 km |
| Killiney | 9,776 | 45 | 13,019 | 1 | 31% | 0.7 km |
| Donabate | 9,669 | 6 | 2,087 | 1 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| Tuam | 9,647 | 8 | 3,460 | 1 | 25% | 0.3 km |
| Donaghmede | 9,616 | 73 | 21,067 | 4 | 38% | 0.3 km |
| Grantstown and Ballinakill | 9,571 | 31 | 11,459 | 2 | 36% | 2.1 km |
| Trim | 9,563 | 7 | 3,065 | 1 | 14% | 0.5 km |
| Glasnevin | 9,299 | 145 | 39,626 | 10 | 59% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Eyre Square | 6,801 | 36 | 12,413 | 5 | 33% | 1.2 km |
Of these 83 other towns, 67 count more pupils at their schools than Tuam. 81 of the 84 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Tuam
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 Tuam had 2,778 pupils in 2015/16 and 3,460 in 2025/26. Archbishop McHale College grew most: +94% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Tuam
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 Tuam
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuam | 8 | 3,460 | 1 | 25% | 0.3 km |
| Headford 17 km | 4 | 1,120 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Tuam 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 Tuam
How many schools are there in Tuam?
In Tuam or within 3 km of it: 4 primary schools, 3 secondary schools and 1 special school, with 3,460 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Tuam that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Gaelscoil Iarfhlatha teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Tuam?
No: all 3 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Tuam?
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 Tuam?
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).