Photo: Sarah777 · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Castlecomer take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Kilkenny’s towns and Irish towns
Measured that way, Castlecomer is below both Co. Kilkenny’s towns (56%) and Irish towns (39%). Community School, with 634 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.
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 Castlecomer’s schools
Extra support for many schools
Many schools here are in DEIS, which gives schools in disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and help; across Ireland, 30% of schools are. In DEIS: Community School (634) and Scoil Íosagáin (121). Who runs them ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs Castlecomer’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
1 of Castlecomer’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Kilkenny & Carlow ETB & Presentation Sisters (1) and Bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory COI (1). 2 of the 3 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.
The 3 schools in and around Castlecomer
Each school in or within 3 km of Castlecomer links to a page of its own. Ireland publishes no school-by-school results, which is why these cards have no letters.
Where the 3 schools in and around Castlecomer 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 Castlecomer’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 Castlecomer
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Castlecomer teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Castlecomer’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside 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 Castlecomer | Co. Kilkenny | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 94% | 20% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 3% | 6% |
| Girls | 46% | 49% | 49% |
94% of the pupils around Castlecomer are at a DEIS school, more than the 27% across Ireland (20% in Co. Kilkenny). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%. The largest DEIS school here is Community School, with 634 pupils.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | 634 | 47% | ✓ | |
| Scoil ÍosagáinPrimary | 121 | 42% | ✓ | |
| Wandesforde Mixed N.S.Primary | 52 | 42% |
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.
The 3 patrons of Castlecomer’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 Castlecomer; the largest, Kilkenny & Carlow ETB & Presentation Sisters, has 1 of them and 79% of the pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kilkenny & Carlow ETB & Presentation SistersCommunity School | Inter-denominational | 1 | 634 |
| patron not listedScoil Íosagáin | Catholic | 1 | 121 |
| Bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory COIWandesforde Mixed | Church of Ireland | 1 | 52 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Castlecomer
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 2 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 Castlecomer’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 3 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Community SchoolPost-primary · Community school | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil ÍosagáinPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Wandesforde Mixed 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 Castlecomer
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Castlecomer is Community School, a community school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 634 | 0.4 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Castlecomer beside the 135 other Irish towns of 1,000 to 2,000 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enniskerry | 2,000 | 10 | 2,487 | 0 | 20% | 2.9 km |
| … | ||||||
| Caherconlish | 1,569 | 3 | 470 | 0 | 0% | 9.1 km |
| Carlingford | 1,528 | 4 | 410 | 0 | 0% | 4.6 km |
| Graiguenamanagh-Tinnahinch | 1,506 | 4 | 399 | 0 | 75% | 0.3 km |
| Rochfortbridge | 1,498 | 2 | 1,343 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Castlecomer | 1,496 | 3 | 807 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Coill Dubh (Blackwood) | 1,476 | 4 | 708 | 0 | 0% | 4.7 km |
| Killumney | 1,466 | 7 | 2,866 | 1 | 0% | 4 km |
| Swinford | 1,459 | 3 | 627 | 0 | 100% | 0.4 km |
| Foxford | 1,452 | 2 | 753 | 0 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Carragh | 1,006 | 2 | 1,383 | 0 | 0% | 3.5 km |
Of the other 135 towns, 47 have more pupils at the schools around them than Castlecomer. Within 3 km, 15 of these 136 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Castlecomer
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 Castlecomer had 818 pupils in 2015/16 and 807 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Castlecomer
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 Castlecomer
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castlecomer | 3 | 807 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Ballyragget 8.1 km | 1 | 163 | 0 | 0% | 8 km |
| Abbeyleix 16 km | 2 | 353 | 0 | 0% | 4.5 km |
| Kilkenny 16 km | 19 | 8,557 | 2 | 11% | 0.6 km |
Kilkenny has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Of Castlecomer’s neighbours, Ballyragget saw the most growth in pupils since 2019/20 (+20%) and Abbeyleix the least (−16%); Castlecomer itself: +3%.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Castlecomer 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 Castlecomer
How many schools are there in Castlecomer?
In Castlecomer or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 807 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Castlecomer that teach through Irish?
None in Castlecomer 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 Castlecomer?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Castlecomer?
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 Castlecomer?
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).