Pupil numbers around Suncroft have fallen behind Co. Kildare’s towns and Irish towns: −8% since 2019/20
That puts Suncroft below both Co. Kildare’s towns (+7%) and Irish towns (+4%). Every one of its 2 schools within 3 km has a Catholic ethos. 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.
What stands out about Suncroft’s schools
A wide choice at twelve
Families here can choose among 6 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: Curragh Community College (4.9 km), Kildare Town Community School (7.9 km) and Cross And Passion College (8.1 km). Post-primary choices ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Where the 2 schools in and around Suncroft 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 Suncroft’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.
Who runs Suncroft’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Suncroft’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (2). 1 of the 2 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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Suncroft
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Suncroft teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Suncroft’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.
| Share of pupils | Around Suncroft | Co. Kildare | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 25% | 17% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 49% | 49% |
25% of the pupils around Suncroft are at a DEIS school, close to the 27% across Ireland (17% in Co. Kildare). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%. The largest DEIS school here is S.N. Bride, with 55 pupils.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.N. BridePrimary | 55 | 44% | ✓ | |
| St Brigids N.S.Primary | 167 | 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.
How children get a place in Suncroft
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, 0 of these 2 schools have grown by 5% or more and 2 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 2 schools in and around Suncroft
Here are the schools in Suncroft or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Ireland doesn’t publish results for individual schools, so none of these carries a letter.
Inspection reports for Suncroft’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 2 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| S.N. BridePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Brigids 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 Suncroft
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
6 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Suncroft: 3 voluntary secondary schools, 2 ETB schools and one community school. 2 teach girls and boys apart: 1 girls’ and 1 boys’ schools. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curragh Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 288 | 4.9 km |
| Kildare Town Community SchoolCommunity school · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,014 | 7.9 km |
| Cross And Passion CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 843 | 8.1 km |
| St Conleth's Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 752 | 9.4 km |
| Holy Family Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 789 | 9.8 km |
| Patrician Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 932 | 9.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Suncroft beside the 263 other Irish towns of 300 to 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shanagarry | 700 | 2 | 201 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| … | ||||||
| Stradbally | 500 | 2 | 134 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
| Nurney | 497 | 1 | 183 | 0 | 0% | 8.5 km |
| Tievebane | 495 | 2 | 407 | 0 | 0% | 7.5 km |
| Smithborough | 495 | 2 | 240 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
| Suncroft | 491 | 2 | 222 | 0 | 50% | 4.9 km |
| Drimoleague | 486 | 3 | 121 | 0 | 0% | 12 km |
| Blackwater | 485 | 1 | 218 | 0 | 0% | 8.9 km |
| Cluain Bú | 484 | 2 | 410 | 1 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| Carrigallen | 481 | 2 | 511 | 0 | 50% | 0.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 108 of the other 263 towns than around Suncroft. 22 of the 264 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Suncroft
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 Suncroft had 279 pupils in 2015/16 and 222 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Suncroft
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 Suncroft
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
Curragh Camp has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Suncroft changed by −8%; among its neighbours, Dunlavin’s grew most (+22%) and Kilcullen’s least (−1%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Suncroft 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 Suncroft
How many schools are there in Suncroft?
In Suncroft or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools, with 222 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Suncroft that teach through Irish?
None in Suncroft or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Suncroft?
Not in Suncroft or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Curragh Community College, 4.9 km away.
What is the best school in Suncroft?
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 Suncroft?
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).