Photo: Robert Ashby · CC BY-SA 2.0Fewer single-sex secondaries around Carragh than around Co. Kildare’s towns or Irish towns: 0%
Measured that way, Carragh is below both Co. Kildare’s towns (20%) and Irish towns (39%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Naas Community College, has 928 pupils. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never graded or ranked.
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.
What stands out about Carragh’s schools
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 ↓
A wide choice at twelve
Families here can choose among 12 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: Naas Community College (3.4 km), Gaelcholáiste Chill Dara (4.5 km) and Coláiste Naomh Mhuire (4.6 km). Post-primary choices ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Carragh
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 Carragh had 606 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,383 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Carragh
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 2 schools in and around Carragh
Every school in Carragh or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Results by school aren’t published in Ireland, so the cards carry none.
Where the 2 schools in and around Carragh 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 Carragh’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 Carragh
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Carragh teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Carragh’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Kildare’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 Carragh | Co. Kildare | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 17% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 47% | 49% | 49% |
Around Carragh, 0% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 17% in Co. Kildare. Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caragh N.S.Primary | 455 | 49% | ||
| Naas Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 928 | 46% |
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 Carragh’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
1 of Carragh’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (1) and Kildare & Wicklow ETB (1). None of the 2 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.
How children get a place in Carragh
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
Of these 2 schools, 1 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 1 have lost as much; Ireland’s 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 Carragh’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
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 2 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Caragh N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Naas Community 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 Carragh
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
12 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Carragh: 7 voluntary secondary schools, 4 ETB schools and one community school. 5 teach girls and boys apart: 2 girls’ and 3 boys’ schools. Fees are charged at 2 of them. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naas Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 928 | 3.4 km |
| Gaelcholáiste Chill DaraVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | Gaelcholáiste | 401 | 4.5 km |
| Coláiste Naomh MhuireVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 1,076 | 4.6 km |
| Meánscoil Iognáid RisVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 1,013 | 5 km |
| St Farnan's Post Primary SchoolETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 676 | 5.7 km |
| Piper's Hill CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 1,049 | 6 km |
| Scoil Mhuire Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,189 | 6.4 km |
| Newbridge CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | Fee-paying | 923 | 7 km |
| Patrician Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 932 | 7.3 km |
| Holy Family Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 789 | 7.3 km |
| St Conleth's Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 752 | 7.8 km |
| Clongowes Wood CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | Fee-paying, Boarding | 421 | 8.6 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Carragh beside the 168 other Irish towns of 700 to 1,400 people
Towns of a similar size, with the schools in or within 3 km of each; ordered by population, never ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moville | 1,390 | 5 | 1,100 | 1 | 40% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Tallow | 1,022 | 2 | 184 | 0 | 50% | 6.3 km |
| Lehinch | 1,018 | 5 | 1,110 | 1 | 40% | 2.8 km |
| Ballinagh | 1,012 | 2 | 321 | 0 | 100% | 6.8 km |
| Newcastle | 1,010 | 5 | 1,475 | 0 | 20% | 3.1 km |
| Carragh | 1,006 | 2 | 1,383 | 0 | 0% | 3.5 km |
| Castletownbere | 999 | 3 | 524 | 0 | 67% | 0.4 km |
| Ardfinnan | 978 | 1 | 244 | 0 | 0% | 8.5 km |
| Myrtleville | 965 | 4 | 999 | 0 | 0% | 2.3 km |
| Leighlinbridge | 959 | 1 | 182 | 0 | 0% | 4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Shanagarry | 700 | 2 | 201 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
Of these 168 other towns, 20 count more pupils at their schools than Carragh. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 20 of the 169.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Carragh
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
Naas has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Of Carragh’s neighbours, Prosperous saw the most growth in pupils since 2019/20 (+19%) and Kilmeage the least (−17%); Carragh itself: +43%.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Carragh 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 Carragh
How many schools are there in Carragh?
In Carragh or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 secondary school, with 1,383 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Carragh that teach through Irish?
None in Carragh 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 Carragh?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Carragh?
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 Carragh?
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).