Photo: Ntfweb · CC BY-SA 3.0The nearest secondary school to Newtownforbes is 5 km away
Every subject is taught through Irish at 0% of the schools around Newtownforbes, below Irish towns (8%). All 2 of its schools are Catholic: there is no other kind within 3 km. 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.
Where the 2 schools in and around Newtownforbes 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 Newtownforbes’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 Newtownforbes’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Newtownforbes’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Ardagh & Clonmacnoise (2). 1 of the 2 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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Newtownforbes
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 2 schools in and around Newtownforbes teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Newtownforbes’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Longford’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Newtownforbes | Co. Longford | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 52% | 62% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 1% | 6% |
| Girls | 44% | 49% | 49% |
52% of the pupils around Newtownforbes are at a DEIS school, more than the 27% across Ireland (62% in Co. Longford). The biggest difference from Ireland is in pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here, 6% there. Of the DEIS schools here, Scoil Mhuire N.S. is the biggest: 317 pupils.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil Mhuire N.S.Primary | 317 | 43% | ✓ | |
| S.N. Cnoc an MharcaighPrimary | 289 | 45% |
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 Newtownforbes
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, 1 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 2 schools in and around Newtownforbes
Each school in or within 3 km of Newtownforbes links to a page of its own. Ireland doesn’t publish results for individual schools, so none of these carries a letter.
Inspection reports for Newtownforbes’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 2 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Scoil Mhuire N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Cnoc an MharcaighPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Newtownforbes
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Families in Newtownforbes have 3 post-primary schools within 10 km: 2 voluntary secondary schools and one ETB school. Of these, 2 are single-sex: 1 for girls and 1 for boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Mel's CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | DEIS | 603 | 5 km |
| Templemichael CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 365 | 5.1 km |
| Meán Scoil MuireVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | DEIS | 600 | 5.2 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Newtownforbes beside the 158 other Irish towns of 600 to 1,100 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buttevant | 1,080 | 2 | 802 | 0 | 100% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Balla | 860 | 2 | 678 | 0 | 0% | 0.6 km |
| Doneraile | 857 | 2 | 434 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Ballyboghil | 855 | 2 | 563 | 0 | 0% | 5.6 km |
| Scarriff-Tuamgraney | 854 | 4 | 720 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Newtownforbes | 851 | 2 | 606 | 0 | 50% | 5 km |
| Strokestown | 850 | 3 | 851 | 0 | 33% | 0.5 km |
| Patrickswell | 848 | 2 | 204 | 0 | 50% | 3.8 km |
| Gowran | 847 | 1 | 197 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Rhode | 841 | 2 | 215 | 0 | 50% | 9.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Na Dúnaibh | 601 | 2 | 202 | 1 | 100% | 14 km |
Among the 158 other towns, 42 have more pupils at their schools than Newtownforbes does. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 15 of the 159.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Newtownforbes
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 Newtownforbes had 615 pupils in 2015/16 and 606 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around Newtownforbes
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 Newtownforbes
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newtownforbes | 2 | 606 | 0 | 50% | 5 km |
| Longford 5 km | 12 | 3,607 | 1 | 83% | 0.2 km |
| Drumlish 7.9 km | 1 | 215 | 0 | 100% | 10 km |
| Lanesborough-Ballyleague 15 km | 4 | 514 | 0 | 75% | 1.2 km |
| Edgeworthstown 17 km | 3 | 423 | 0 | 33% | 11 km |
| Mohill 17 km | 3 | 788 | 0 | 33% | 0.5 km |
Longford has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. The roll around Newtownforbes moved −6% since 2019/20; nearby, Mohill grew most (+27%) and Drumlish least (−7%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Newtownforbes 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 Newtownforbes
How many schools are there in Newtownforbes?
In Newtownforbes or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools, with 606 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Newtownforbes that teach through Irish?
None in Newtownforbes or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Newtownforbes?
Not in Newtownforbes or within 3 km of it; the nearest is St. Mel's College, 5 km away.
What is the best school in Newtownforbes?
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 Newtownforbes?
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).