Photo: Humphrey Bolton · CC BY-SA 2.0No secondary school in or near Goresbridge: the nearest is 6.4 km away
All-Irish schools make up 0% of those around Goresbridge, below both Co. Kilkenny’s towns (6%) and Irish towns (8%). 1 primary school and 1 special school are in or within 3 km of Goresbridge, with 80 pupils between them. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
Counted from the Department of Education’s 2025/26 lists: every school in the town or within 3 km of it, against every school in Ireland.
Where the 2 schools in and around Goresbridge 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 Goresbridge’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 Goresbridge
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Goresbridge teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Goresbridge’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Kilkenny’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Goresbridge | Co. Kilkenny | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 20% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 3% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
Fewer of the pupils around Goresbridge are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 0% against 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goresbridge N.S.Primary | 68 | 54% | ||
| Saplings Special SchoolSpecial | 12 | 8% |
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.
Who runs Goresbridge’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
1 of Goresbridge’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (1) and Sapling School Company Limited by Guarantee (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.
How children get a place in Goresbridge
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 2 schools in and around Goresbridge
Every school in Goresbridge or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. No school here carries a letter or a result: Ireland publishes neither for individual schools.
Inspection reports for Goresbridge’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
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 |
|---|---|
| Goresbridge N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Saplings Special SchoolSpecial | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Goresbridge
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Families in Goresbridge have 3 post-primary schools within 10 km: 2 ETB schools and one voluntary secondary school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borris CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 558 | 6.3 km |
| Presentation / De La Salle CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 769 | 8 km |
| Coláiste AindriúETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 142 | 8.5 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Goresbridge
Saplings Special School is the special school here, with 12 pupils. 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.
Goresbridge beside the 224 other Irish towns of 200 to 400 people
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km, listed by population: Ireland publishes no results, so none is ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crossbarry | 399 | 2 | 184 | 0 | 0% | 8.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Model Village or Dripsey | 323 | 1 | 100 | 0 | 0% | 3.6 km |
| Ballinagar | 321 | 2 | 319 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Gortnahoo | 321 | 1 | 132 | 0 | 100% | 8.3 km |
| Abbeyknockmoy | 318 | 1 | 172 | 0 | 100% | 10 km |
| Goresbridge | 317 | 2 | 80 | 0 | 0% | 6.4 km |
| Killimor | 317 | 1 | 136 | 0 | 0% | 9.6 km |
| Scotshouse | 317 | 1 | 69 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| Bree | 316 | 2 | 246 | 0 | 50% | 5.6 km |
| Inistioge | 315 | 1 | 104 | 0 | 0% | 6.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Lahardane | 200 | 1 | 76 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
Among the 224 other towns, 179 have more pupils at their schools than Goresbridge does. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 17 of the 225.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Goresbridge
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 Goresbridge had 100 pupils in 2015/16 and 80 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Goresbridge
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 Goresbridge
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goresbridge | 2 | 80 | 0 | 0% | 6.4 km |
| Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) 8 km | 6 | 1,570 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
| Graiguenamanagh-Tinnahinch 10 km | 4 | 399 | 0 | 75% | 0.3 km |
| Thomastown 15 km | 2 | 732 | 0 | 50% | 0.1 km |
| Kilkenny 17 km | 19 | 8,557 | 2 | 11% | 0.6 km |
Kilkenny has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Goresbridge 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 Goresbridge
How many schools are there in Goresbridge?
In Goresbridge or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 special school, with 80 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Goresbridge that teach through Irish?
None in Goresbridge or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Goresbridge?
Not in Goresbridge or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Borris College, 6.4 km away.
What is the best school in Goresbridge?
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 Goresbridge?
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).