Photo: Marathon · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Westport take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Mayo’s towns and Irish towns
For Westport, that is below both Co. Mayo’s towns (67%) and Irish towns (39%). In or within 3 km of Westport, they have 2,121 pupils in all. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never graded or ranked.
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 Westport’s schools
One school growing fast
Rice College has grown from 460 pupils in 2019/20 to 615, the fastest of the schools here. Getting a place ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Where the 10 schools in and around Westport 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 Westport’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 Westport
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
1 of Westport’s 10 schools teach every subject through Irish: Gaelscoil na Cuaiche.
Who Westport’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside Co. Mayo’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 Westport | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 5% | 37% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 10% | 5% | 6% |
| Girls | 35% | 48% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 0% | 26% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 0% | 6% |
Around Westport, 5% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 37% in Co. Mayo. Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of post-primary pupils at single-sex schools: 0% here against 29%. The biggest school in DEIS is S.N. Lainn Cille (66 pupils).
Each of the 10 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 615 | 11% | ||
| Sacred Heart SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 530 | – | ||
| Scoil PhadraigPrimary | 338 | 53% | ||
| Gaelscoil na CuaichePrimary | 208 | 52% | ✓ | |
| S.N. Naomh Colm CillePrimary | 206 | 41% | ||
| Westport Educate Together National SchoolPrimary | 48 | 46% | ||
| Holy Trinity National SchoolPrimary | 41 | 54% | ||
| Carraholly N.S.Primary | 42 | 45% | ✓ | |
| S.N. Lainn CillePrimary | 66 | 47% | ✓ | |
| S.N. Colm NaofaPrimary | 27 | 56% |
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 Westport’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
8 of Westport’s 10 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Tuam (5), Edmund Rice Schools Trust (1) and CEIST (1). 2 of the 10 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 6 patrons of Westport’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
6 patrons run the 10 schools around Westport; the largest, Archbishop of Tuam, has 5 of them and 32% of the pupils. Educate Together runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of TuamScoil Phadraig, S.N. Naomh Colm Cille, S.N. Lainn Cille, Carraholly, S.N. Colm Naofa | Catholic | 5 | 679 |
| Edmund Rice Schools TrustRice College | Catholic | 1 | 615 |
| CEISTSacred Heart School | Catholic | 1 | 530 |
| An Foras PátrúnachtaGaelscoil na Cuaiche | Catholic | 1 | 208 |
| Educate TogetherWestport Educate Together | Multi-denominational | 1 | 48 |
| Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry COIHoly Trinity | Church of Ireland | 1 | 41 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Westport
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
Of these 9 schools, 2 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 3 have lost as much; Ireland’s pupils changed by +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 10 schools in and around Westport
Every school in Westport or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Ireland publishes no school-by-school results, which is why these cards have no letters.
Inspection reports for Westport’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
Reports come from whole-school evaluations (teaching, learning, leadership and management), subject inspections and follow-through visits that check earlier advice; gov.ie publishes each one with the school’s response.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 10 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Rice CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Sacred Heart SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil PhadraigPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Gaelscoil na CuaichePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Naomh Colm CillePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Westport Educate Together National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Holy Trinity National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Carraholly N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Lainn CillePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Colm NaofaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Westport
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
2 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Westport: 2 voluntary secondary schools. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sacred Heart SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 530 | 0.6 km |
| Rice CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 615 | 0.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Westport beside the 99 other Irish towns of 4,800 to 9,300 people
Schools in or within 3 km of each town, by population; none is ranked, as Ireland publishes no results
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glasnevin | 9,299 | 145 | 39,626 | 10 | 59% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Turner's Cross | 7,208 | 77 | 24,127 | 7 | 44% | 0.3 km |
| South Gate | 7,185 | 75 | 23,775 | 7 | 47% | 0.3 km |
| Dunboyne | 7,155 | 14 | 7,600 | 1 | 7% | 0.3 km |
| Buncrana | 6,971 | 7 | 2,583 | 2 | 43% | 0.6 km |
| Westport | 6,872 | 10 | 2,121 | 1 | 20% | 0.6 km |
| Eyre Square | 6,801 | 36 | 12,413 | 5 | 33% | 1.2 km |
| Christchurch | 6,778 | 119 | 29,651 | 8 | 51% | 0.3 km |
| O'Connell Street | 6,749 | 124 | 33,516 | 11 | 52% | 0.5 km |
| Fermoy | 6,720 | 12 | 3,461 | 1 | 17% | 0.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Tramore | 4,803 | 75 | 22,562 | 7 | 48% | 0.7 km |
Of the other 99 towns, 88 have more pupils at the schools around them than Westport. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 86 of the 100.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Westport
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Westport had 2,366 pupils in 2015/16 and 2,121 in 2025/26, fewer than before. Rice College grew most: +34% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Westport
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 Westport
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westport | 10 | 2,121 | 1 | 20% | 0.6 km |
| Castlebar 16 km | 12 | 4,272 | 1 | 17% | 0.3 km |
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Westport 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 Westport
How many schools are there in Westport?
In Westport or within 3 km of it: 8 primary schools and 2 secondary schools, with 2,121 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Westport that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Gaelscoil na Cuaiche teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Westport?
No: all 2 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Westport?
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 Westport?
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).