Photo: Scaramanga731 · CC BY-SA 4.0Around Enfield, only 0% of schools teach through Irish, fewer than around Co. Meath’s towns or Irish towns
On this, Enfield is below both Co. Meath’s towns (9%) and Irish towns (8%). 2 of its 4 schools are multi- or inter-denominational, against 14% across Ireland. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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 Enfield’s schools
More pupils every year
Pupil numbers at the schools here have grown faster than across Ireland (+5% since 2019/20), so classes and new places are a question worth asking. Pupils over time ↓
A choice beyond the church schools
Most schools in Ireland have a church patron; here more of them are multi- or inter-denominational than in most places (14% across Ireland). They are Enfield Community College (684) and Cara Community Special School (28). Who runs them ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Enfield
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 Enfield had 691 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,342 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Enfield
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.
Who runs Enfield’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Enfield’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Louth & Meath ETB (2), Bishop of Meath (1) and Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (1). None of the 4 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.
The 4 schools in and around Enfield
Every school in Enfield 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.
Where the 4 schools in and around Enfield 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 Enfield’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 Enfield
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 4 schools in and around Enfield teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Enfield’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Meath’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 Enfield | Co. Meath | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 14% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 5% | 6% |
| Girls | 47% | 49% | 49% |
Fewer of the pupils around Enfield are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 0% against 27% (Co. Meath: 14%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%.
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Mary's Primary SchoolPrimary | 543 | 48% | ||
| Cara Community Special SchoolSpecial | 28 | 21% | ||
| Enfield Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 684 | 47% | ||
| St Patricks N.S.Primary | 87 | 55% |
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 Enfield’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
Louth & Meath ETB is patron of 2 of the 4 schools around Enfield, which teach 53% of their pupils; 3 patrons run them in all. Education and Training Boards run 2 of them.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louth & Meath ETBEnfield, Cara Community Special School | Multi-denominational | 2 | 712 |
| Bishop of MeathSt. Mary's Primary School | Catholic | 1 | 543 |
| Bishop of Kildare & LeighlinSt Patricks | Catholic | 1 | 87 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Enfield
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 2 schools, 0 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 2 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.
Inspection reports for Enfield’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
The Inspectorate inspects schools in several ways: a whole-school evaluation covers teaching, learning and how the school is led; a subject inspection looks at one subject; a follow-through checks on earlier advice. Reports go on gov.ie with the school’s reply.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 4 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| St. Mary's Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Cara Community Special SchoolSpecial | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Enfield Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 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 Enfield
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Within 10 km of Enfield there are 2 post-primary schools: 2 ETB schools. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enfield Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 684 | 0.7 km |
| Coláiste ClavinETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 519 | 7.4 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Enfield
Cara Community Special School is the special school here, with 28 pupils. 1 of the 2 primary schools have special classes for children who need more support. 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.
Enfield beside the 89 other Irish towns of 2,600 to 4,900 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duleek | 4,899 | 4 | 957 | 0 | 50% | 6.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballinacurra | 3,719 | 48 | 15,810 | 6 | 46% | 0.8 km |
| Cork City Centre | 3,701 | 77 | 23,441 | 7 | 48% | 0.5 km |
| Cahir | 3,679 | 2 | 1,300 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Riverstown | 3,664 | 12 | 4,146 | 3 | 8% | 0.8 km |
| Enfield | 3,663 | 4 | 1,342 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Westbury | 3,636 | 29 | 9,896 | 3 | 55% | 0.9 km |
| Ballyfermot | 3,632 | 58 | 19,071 | 2 | 57% | 0.4 km |
| Newtownmountkennedy | 3,539 | 5 | 1,475 | 0 | 20% | 3.6 km |
| Shandon | 3,539 | 63 | 19,030 | 5 | 52% | 0.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Baltinglass | 2,611 | 3 | 912 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
Of these 89 other towns, 68 count more pupils at their schools than Enfield. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 57 of the 90.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Enfield
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enfield | 4 | 1,342 | 0 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Longwood 7.9 km | 2 | 818 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Kilcock 11 km | 4 | 2,202 | 1 | 0% | 0.6 km |
| Derrinturn 11 km | 3 | 426 | 0 | 100% | 8.3 km |
| Coill Dubh (Blackwood) 13 km | 4 | 708 | 0 | 0% | 4.7 km |
| Allenwood 14 km | 4 | 802 | 0 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| Prosperous 14 km | 2 | 1,169 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
Kilcock has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Pupils around Enfield: +85% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Prosperous led (+19%) and Derrinturn trailed (−9%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Enfield 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 Enfield
How many schools are there in Enfield?
In Enfield or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools, 1 secondary school and 1 special school, with 1,342 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Enfield that teach through Irish?
None in Enfield 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 Enfield?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Enfield?
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 Enfield?
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).