Photo: Sarah777 · Public domainNo secondary school in or near Bennettsbridge: the nearest is 7 km away
Around Bennettsbridge, 0% of schools teach through Irish, below both Co. Kilkenny’s towns (6%) and Irish towns (8%). Bennettsbridge National School is a primary with 206 pupils. 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 Bennettsbridge’s schools
A wide choice at twelve
Within 10 km of the town there are 8 post-primary schools to choose from, of different kinds; each sets its own admission policy, and many families apply to several. The nearest: Presentation Secondary School (7 km), Grennan College (7.5 km) and St Kieran's College (8 km). Post-primary choices ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Where the school in or near Bennettsbridge is
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 Bennettsbridge’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 Bennettsbridge
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 1 schools in and around Bennettsbridge teaches every subject through Irish.
Who runs Bennettsbridge’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
1 of Bennettsbridge’s 1 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Ossory (1). None of the 1 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 Bennettsbridge
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.
The school in and around Bennettsbridge
Every school in Bennettsbridge or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Ireland doesn’t publish results for individual schools, so none of these carries a letter.
Inspection reports for Bennettsbridge’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 the school should do next. They give no overall grade, so none is shown here; the school below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Bennettsbridge National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Bennettsbridge
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Families in Bennettsbridge have 8 post-primary schools within 10 km: 5 voluntary secondary schools and 3 ETB schools. 4 teach girls and boys apart: 2 girls’ and 2 boys’ schools. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 972 | 7 km |
| Grennan CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 334 | 7.5 km |
| St Kieran's CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 831 | 8 km |
| City Vocational SchoolETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | Irish stream, DEIS | 300 | 8 km |
| Coláiste Pobail OsraíETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | Gaelcholáiste | 214 | 8.1 km |
| Christian Brothers College KilkennyVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 816 | 8.6 km |
| Loreto Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 947 | 9.3 km |
| Kilkenny CollegeVoluntary secondary · Church of Ireland | Girls and boys | Boarding | 928 | 9.6 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Bennettsbridge beside the 169 other Irish towns of 500 to 900 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cratloe | 899 | 1 | 278 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Tallanstown | 668 | 2 | 457 | 0 | 0% | 7.8 km |
| Cappamore | 668 | 2 | 161 | 0 | 50% | 6.3 km |
| Ballitore | 667 | 1 | 259 | 0 | 0% | 9.4 km |
| An Rinn | 665 | 3 | 332 | 3 | 33% | 0.3 km |
| Bennettsbridge | 664 | 1 | 206 | 0 | 0% | 7 km |
| Dunmore | 664 | 3 | 605 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Ballygar | 660 | 3 | 411 | 0 | 33% | 0.3 km |
| Ballyroan | 657 | 1 | 177 | 0 | 0% | 7 km |
| Cloghan | 654 | 1 | 93 | 0 | 100% | 6.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Stradbally | 500 | 2 | 134 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
Of these 169 other towns, 104 count more pupils at their schools than Bennettsbridge. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 15 of the 170.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Bennettsbridge
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Bennettsbridge had 193 pupils in 2015/16 and 206 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Bennettsbridge
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 Bennettsbridge
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km of its outline; distances as the crow flies.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bennettsbridge | 1 | 206 | 0 | 0% | 7 km |
| Thomastown 7.6 km | 2 | 732 | 0 | 50% | 0.1 km |
| Kilkenny 8.4 km | 19 | 8,557 | 2 | 11% | 0.6 km |
| Callan 15 km | 2 | 1,112 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Graiguenamanagh-Tinnahinch 16 km | 4 | 399 | 0 | 75% | 0.3 km |
| Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) 19 km | 6 | 1,570 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
Kilkenny has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Pupils around Bennettsbridge: +7% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Callan led (+18%) and Graiguenamanagh-Tinnahinch trailed (−8%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Bennettsbridge 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 Bennettsbridge
How many schools are there in Bennettsbridge?
In Bennettsbridge or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school, with 206 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Bennettsbridge that teach through Irish?
None in Bennettsbridge or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Bennettsbridge?
Not in Bennettsbridge or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Presentation Secondary School, 7 km away.
What is the best school in Bennettsbridge?
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 Bennettsbridge?
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).