Photo: A.-K. D. · CC BY-SA 4.0Fewer single-sex secondaries around Callan than around Irish towns: 0%
For Callan, that is below Irish towns (39%). Every one of its 2 schools within 3 km has a Catholic ethos. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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 Callan’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 ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Callan
Each September’s pupils at every school in or within 3 km of the town, counted where the school stands today.
The schools in and around Callan had 857 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,112 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Callan
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.
Who runs Callan’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Callan’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: CEIST & ERST (1) and Bishop of Ossory (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.
The 2 schools in and around Callan
Here are the schools in Callan or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Where the 2 schools in and around Callan 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 Callan’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 Callan
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Callan teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Callan’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Kilkenny’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 Callan | Co. Kilkenny | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 20% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 3% | 6% |
| Girls | 44% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 0% of the pupils around Callan, a smaller share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Kilkenny: 20%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coláiste Abhainn RíPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 706 | 40% | ||
| Bunscoil McAuley RicePrimary | 406 | 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 Callan
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.
Inspection reports for Callan’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 |
|---|---|
| Coláiste Abhainn RíPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Bunscoil McAuley RicePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Callan
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Callan is Coláiste Abhainn Rí, a voluntary secondary school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coláiste Abhainn RíVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 706 | 0.5 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Callan
No special school is in or near Callan. 1 of the 1 primary schools has 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.
Callan beside the 79 other Irish towns of 1,900 to 3,600 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newtownmountkennedy | 3,539 | 5 | 1,475 | 0 | 20% | 3.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Kilbarry | 2,758 | 30 | 12,024 | 1 | 43% | 1.9 km |
| Claddagh | 2,755 | 31 | 11,252 | 4 | 32% | 0.5 km |
| Donegal | 2,749 | 6 | 1,791 | 1 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Decies | 2,713 | 44 | 11,294 | 1 | 64% | 0.8 km |
| Callan | 2,678 | 2 | 1,112 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Kilrush | 2,649 | 3 | 733 | 1 | 100% | 0.4 km |
| Baltinglass | 2,611 | 3 | 912 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Bundoran | 2,599 | 3 | 898 | 0 | 33% | 0.2 km |
| Athboy | 2,596 | 4 | 1,372 | 2 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Banagher | 1,907 | 3 | 877 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
Of the other 79 towns, 52 have more pupils at the schools around them than Callan. 35 of the 80 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Callan
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callan | 2 | 1,112 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Kilkenny 15 km | 19 | 8,557 | 2 | 11% | 0.6 km |
| Thomastown 17 km | 2 | 732 | 0 | 50% | 0.1 km |
Kilkenny has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Pupils around Callan: +18% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Kilkenny led (+4%) and Thomastown trailed (−4%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Callan 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 Callan
How many schools are there in Callan?
In Callan or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 secondary school, with 1,112 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Callan that teach through Irish?
None in Callan 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 Callan?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Callan?
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 Callan?
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).