Photo: Sarah777 · Public domainMore of the schools around The Swan are in DEIS than around Co. Laois’ towns or Irish towns: 100%
Around The Swan, 100% of schools are in DEIS, above both Co. Laois’ towns (15%) and Irish towns (35%). 3 of its 3 schools are in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas, against 30% across Ireland. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, 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 The Swan’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: St Patricks N.S. (57), Scoil an Chroi Ro Naofa (29) and Scoil Mhuire (9). Who runs them ↓
Fewer pupils than before
Pupil numbers at the schools here have fallen since 2019/20, against +5% across Ireland. Pupils over time ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Where the 3 schools in and around The Swan 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 The Swan’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 The Swan’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
3 of The Swan’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (2) and Bishop of Ossory (1). 3 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.
Pupil numbers around The Swan
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around The Swan had 132 pupils in 2015/16 and 95 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around The Swan
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.
Teaching through Irish in and around The Swan
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 3 schools in and around The Swan teaches every subject through Irish.
Who The Swan’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside Co. Laois’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around The Swan | Co. Laois | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 100% | 22% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 2% | 6% |
| Girls | 41% | 49% | 49% |
More of the pupils around The Swan are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 100% against 27% (Co. Laois: 22%). Set beside Ireland, girls stand out most: 41% against 49%. The largest DEIS school here is St Patricks N.S., with 57 pupils.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil an Chroi Ro NaofaPrimary | 29 | 48% | ✓ | |
| Scoil MhuirePrimary | 9 | 33% | ✓ | |
| St Patricks N.S.Primary | 57 | 39% | ✓ |
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 2 patrons of The Swan’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
Of the 3 schools around The Swan, 2 have Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin as patron, teaching 40% of the pupils; 2 patrons in all.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of Kildare & LeighlinScoil an Chroi Ro Naofa, Scoil Mhuire | Catholic | 2 | 38 |
| Bishop of OssorySt Patricks | Catholic | 1 | 57 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in The Swan
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
0 schools here have grown by 5% or more since 2019/20, 2 have shrunk by as much, out of 2; across Ireland: +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 3 schools in and around The Swan
Here are the schools in The Swan 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.
Inspection reports for The Swan’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 3 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Scoil an Chroi Ro NaofaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil MhuirePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Patricks 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 The Swan
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Families in The Swan have 2 post-primary schools within 10 km: 2 community schools. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heywood Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 749 | 9.6 km |
| Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 634 | 10 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
The Swan beside the 224 other Irish towns of 200 to 400 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crossbarry | 399 | 2 | 184 | 0 | 0% | 8.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Clashmore | 280 | 2 | 120 | 0 | 50% | 7.1 km |
| Doonbeg | 279 | 1 | 63 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Duagh | 278 | 1 | 166 | 0 | 0% | 6.8 km |
| Palatine | 276 | 1 | 377 | 0 | 0% | 4.2 km |
| The Swan | 275 | 3 | 95 | 0 | 100% | 9.7 km |
| Bracknagh | 274 | 1 | 72 | 0 | 100% | 6.9 km |
| Beaufort | 273 | 1 | 152 | 0 | 0% | 7.8 km |
| Ardagh | 273 | 1 | 82 | 0 | 0% | 4.3 km |
| Coolboy | 272 | 1 | 68 | 0 | 0% | 6.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Lahardane | 200 | 1 | 76 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 166 of the other 224 towns than around The Swan. 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.
Schools in the towns around The Swan
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Swan | 3 | 95 | 0 | 100% | 9.7 km |
| Ballylinan 9.8 km | 3 | 435 | 0 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| Castlecomer 10 km | 3 | 807 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Abbeyleix 13 km | 2 | 353 | 0 | 0% | 4.5 km |
| Stradbally 14 km | 2 | 375 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Ballyragget 16 km | 1 | 163 | 0 | 0% | 8 km |
| Athy 16 km | 7 | 2,975 | 1 | 57% | 0.8 km |
Athy has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Pupils around The Swan: −23% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Stradbally led (+24%) and Abbeyleix trailed (−16%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in The Swan 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 The Swan
How many schools are there in The Swan?
In The Swan or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools, with 95 pupils between them.
Are there schools in The Swan that teach through Irish?
None in The Swan or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in The Swan?
Not in The Swan or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Heywood Community School, 9.7 km away.
What is the best school in The Swan?
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 The Swan?
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).