Around Rathcoffey, 100% of the post-primary schools take only girls or only boys, above Co. Kildare’s towns and Irish towns
100% of the post-primary schools around Rathcoffey take only girls or only boys, above both Co. Kildare’s towns (20%) and Irish towns (39%). All 2 of its schools are Catholic: there is no other kind within 3 km. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.
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 Rathcoffey’s schools
One fee-paying secondary school
One secondary school within reach charges fees; the others are free. The fee-paying one: Clongowes Wood College (421). Every school ↓
A wide choice at twelve
10 post-primary schools lie within 10 km, so families here have a real choice at twelve; each admits on its own policy. The nearest: Clongowes Wood College (2.3 km), Scoil Mhuire Community School (4.4 km) and St Farnan's Post Primary School (6.6 km). Post-primary choices ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
The 2 schools in and around Rathcoffey
Every school in Rathcoffey 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.
Who runs Rathcoffey’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Rathcoffey’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (1) and Society of Jesus (Jesuits) (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.
Where the 2 schools in and around Rathcoffey 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 Rathcoffey’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 Rathcoffey
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 2 schools in and around Rathcoffey teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Rathcoffey’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 Rathcoffey | Co. Kildare | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 17% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 15% | 49% | 49% |
Fewer of the pupils around Rathcoffey are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 0% against 27% (Co. Kildare: 17%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of girls: 15% here against 49%.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rathcoffey N.S.Primary | 215 | 45% | ||
| Clongowes Wood CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 421 | 0% |
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.
How children get a place in Rathcoffey
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. The fee-paying school here sets its own fees and admissions.
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, 0 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 Rathcoffey’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, none rated
Inspectors visit every kind of school. Whole-school evaluations look at teaching and learning, leadership and management; subject inspections look at one subject; follow-through inspections check whether earlier advice was taken. Each report is published 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 2 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Rathcoffey N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Clongowes Wood CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Rathcoffey
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Within 10 km of Rathcoffey there are 10 post-primary schools: 4 ETB schools, 3 voluntary secondary schools and 3 community schools. 3 of them are single-sex, 1 for girls and 2 for boys. One of them charges fees. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clongowes Wood CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | Fee-paying, Boarding | 421 | 2.3 km |
| Scoil Mhuire Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,189 | 4.4 km |
| St Farnan's Post Primary SchoolETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 676 | 6.6 km |
| Scoil DaraVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 828 | 8.1 km |
| St Wolstan's Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls | – | 846 | 8.2 km |
| Gaelcholáiste Mhaigh NuadETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | Gaelcholáiste | 154 | 8.3 km |
| Maynooth Post Primary SchoolETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,018 | 8.4 km |
| Maynooth Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,013 | 9.2 km |
| Salesian CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 880 | 9.4 km |
| Celbridge Community SchoolCommunity school · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 712 | 9.6 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Rathcoffey beside the 169 other Irish towns of 300 to 500 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stradbally | 500 | 2 | 134 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Milltown | 372 | 7 | 2,588 | 0 | 57% | 3.8 km |
| Kilmead | 372 | 1 | 139 | 0 | 100% | 6.9 km |
| Kildorrery | 372 | 1 | 177 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| Mungret | 372 | 12 | 4,700 | 1 | 0% | 0.6 km |
| Rathcoffey | 371 | 2 | 636 | 0 | 0% | 2.3 km |
| Campile | 371 | 1 | 238 | 0 | 100% | 5.8 km |
| Castlegregory | 370 | 3 | 414 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Ballinspittle | 369 | 1 | 192 | 0 | 0% | 6.5 km |
| Louisburgh | 367 | 2 | 704 | 0 | 50% | 0.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
Of the other 169 towns, 20 have more pupils at the schools around them than Rathcoffey. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 16 of the 170.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Rathcoffey
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 Rathcoffey had 657 pupils in 2015/16 and 636 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Rathcoffey
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 Rathcoffey
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
Maynooth has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 3. The roll around Rathcoffey moved −5% since 2019/20; nearby, Maynooth grew most (+23%) and Kilcock least (−2%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Rathcoffey 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 Rathcoffey
How many schools are there in Rathcoffey?
In Rathcoffey or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 secondary school, with 636 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Rathcoffey that teach through Irish?
None in Rathcoffey 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 Rathcoffey?
One of the 1: Clongowes Wood College. The others are free.
What is the best school in Rathcoffey?
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 Rathcoffey?
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).