Photo: locardi · CC BY-SA 3.0Most post-primaries around Kilcullen take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Kildare’s towns and Irish towns
In the comparison, Kilcullen comes below both Co. Kildare’s towns (23%) and Irish towns (39%). Cross And Passion College, with 843 pupils, is the only secondary school within 3 km. 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.
What stands out about Kilcullen’s schools
A wide choice at twelve
Families here can choose among 8 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: Cross And Passion College (0.2 km), Curragh Community College (6.2 km) and Holy Family Secondary School (6.5 km). Post-primary choices ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
The 3 schools in and around Kilcullen
Every school in Kilcullen or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Where the 3 schools in and around Kilcullen 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 Kilcullen’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 Kilcullen
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Kilcullen teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Kilcullen’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside 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 Kilcullen | Co. Kildare | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 17% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 49% | 49% |
Around Kilcullen, 0% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 17% in Co. Kildare. The biggest difference from Ireland is in pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here, 6% there.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cross And Passion CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 843 | 47% | ||
| St Brigids N.S.Primary | 598 | 53% | ||
| Brannoxtown Community N.S.Primary | 83 | 51% |
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 Kilcullen’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Kilcullen’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Le Chéile Schools Trust (1), Archbishop of Dublin (1) and Kildare & Wicklow ETB (1). None of the 3 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 3 patrons of Kilcullen’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
3 patrons run the 3 schools around Kilcullen; the largest, Le Chéile Schools Trust, has 1 of them and 55% of the pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Le Chéile Schools TrustCross And Passion College | Catholic | 1 | 843 |
| Archbishop of DublinSt Brigids | Catholic | 1 | 598 |
| Kildare & Wicklow ETBBrannoxtown Community | Multi-denominational | 1 | 83 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Kilcullen
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
Between 2019/20 and now, 1 of the 3 grew by 5% or more and 1 shrank as much, while Ireland’s pupil numbers moved +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 Kilcullen’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, 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 3 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Cross And Passion CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Brigids N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Brannoxtown Community 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 Kilcullen
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Within 10 km of Kilcullen there are 8 post-primary schools: 4 voluntary secondary schools and 4 ETB schools. 2 teach girls and boys apart: 1 girls’ and 1 boys’ schools. One of them charges fees. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cross And Passion CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 843 | 0.2 km |
| Curragh Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 288 | 6.2 km |
| Holy Family Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 789 | 6.5 km |
| Patrician Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 932 | 6.7 km |
| St Conleth's Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 752 | 6.8 km |
| Newbridge CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | Fee-paying | 923 | 7.1 km |
| Piper's Hill CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 1,049 | 8.7 km |
| St Kevin's Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 829 | 9.2 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Kilcullen
No special school is in or near Kilcullen. 1 of the 2 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.
Kilcullen beside the 92 other Irish towns of 2,700 to 5,200 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tullow | 5,138 | 4 | 1,339 | 0 | 75% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Castleblayney | 3,926 | 9 | 2,076 | 1 | 44% | 0.5 km |
| Claremorris | 3,857 | 3 | 1,120 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Farranree | 3,824 | 57 | 16,957 | 5 | 56% | 0.4 km |
| Kill | 3,818 | 2 | 774 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
| Kilcullen | 3,815 | 3 | 1,524 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Shanakiel | 3,804 | 52 | 16,547 | 5 | 54% | 0.6 km |
| Mitchelstown | 3,744 | 5 | 1,646 | 0 | 40% | 0.4 km |
| Stamullen | 3,720 | 3 | 1,043 | 0 | 0% | 2.1 km |
| Ballinacurra | 3,719 | 48 | 15,810 | 6 | 46% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Decies | 2,713 | 44 | 11,294 | 1 | 64% | 0.8 km |
Of the other 92 towns, 64 have more pupils at the schools around them than Kilcullen. Within 3 km, 60 of these 93 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Kilcullen
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 Kilcullen had 1,444 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,524 in 2025/26. Brannoxtown Community N.S. grew most: +295% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Kilcullen
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 Kilcullen
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. The roll around Kilcullen moved −1% since 2019/20; nearby, Dunlavin grew most (+22%) and Newbridge least (+2%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Kilcullen 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 Kilcullen
How many schools are there in Kilcullen?
In Kilcullen or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,524 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Kilcullen that teach through Irish?
None in Kilcullen 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 Kilcullen?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Kilcullen?
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 Kilcullen?
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).