Photo: Kieran Campbell · CC BY-SA 2.0The schools around Gormanston have fewer pupils than in 2019/20: −7%, below Co. Meath’s towns and Irish towns
On this, Gormanston is below both Co. Meath’s towns (+4%) and Irish towns (+4%). They have 2,680 pupils between them, in or within 3 km of Gormanston. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.
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 Gormanston’s schools
A wide choice at twelve
Families here can choose among 8 post-primary schools within 10 km of the town, of more than one kind; each admits on its own published policy, so applying to more than one is common. The nearest: Franciscan College (0.3 km), Coláiste Ghlór na Mara (3.8 km) and Bremore Educate Together Secondary School (4.2 km). Post-primary choices ↓
Few schools in DEIS
Only 1 of the 7 schools here are in DEIS, the programme of extra teachers and money for schools serving disadvantaged areas; across Ireland, 30% of schools are. The one in DEIS: Balbriggan Educate Together NS (356). Who goes there ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Where the 7 schools in and around Gormanston 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 Gormanston’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 Gormanston
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
1 of Gormanston’s 7 schools teach every subject through Irish: Coláiste Ghlór na Mara.
Who Gormanston’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against 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 Gormanston | Co. Meath | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 13% | 14% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 19% | 5% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 0% | 22% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 0% | 6% |
Around Gormanston, 13% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 14% in Co. Meath. The biggest difference from Ireland is in post-primary pupils at single-sex schools: 0% here, 29% there. Of the DEIS schools here, Balbriggan Educate Together NS is the biggest: 356 pupils.
Each of the 7 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franciscan CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 321 | 42% | ||
| S.N. Naomh PadraigPrimary | 524 | 49% | ||
| Balscadden N.S.Primary | 198 | 50% | ||
| Balbriggan Educate Together NSPrimary | 356 | 45% | ✓ | |
| St Molaga Senior N.S.Primary | 422 | 50% | ||
| Coláiste Ghlór na MaraPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 520 | 48% | ✓ | |
| St Georges N.S.Primary | 339 | 49% |
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 Gormanston’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
4 of Gormanston’s 7 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Dublin (2), Order of Friars Minor (Franciscan Fathers) Irish Province (1) and Bishop of Meath (1). 1 of the 7 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 Gormanston’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
Of the 7 schools around Gormanston, 2 have Archbishop of Dublin as patron, teaching 23% of the pupils; 6 patrons in all. Educate Together runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of DublinSt Molaga Senior, Balscadden | Catholic | 2 | 620 |
| Bishop of MeathS.N. Naomh Padraig | Catholic | 1 | 524 |
| An Foras PátrúnachtaColáiste Ghlór na Mara | Multi-denominational | 1 | 520 |
| Educate TogetherBalbriggan Educate Together NS | Multi-denominational | 1 | 356 |
| Archbishop of Dublin & Bishop of Glendalough COISt Georges | Church of Ireland | 1 | 339 |
| Order of Friars Minor (Franciscan Fathers) Irish ProvinceFranciscan College | Catholic | 1 | 321 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Gormanston
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 7 schools, 1 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 6 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 7 schools in and around Gormanston
Each school in or within 3 km of Gormanston links to a page of its own. Results by school aren’t published in Ireland, so the cards carry none.
Inspection reports for Gormanston’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
Inspectors visit every kind of school. Whole-school evaluations look at teaching and learning, leadership and management; subject inspections look at one subject; follow-through inspections check whether earlier advice was taken. Each report is published 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 7 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Franciscan CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Naomh PadraigPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Balscadden N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Balbriggan Educate Together NSPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Molaga Senior N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Coláiste Ghlór na MaraPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Georges 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 Gormanston
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Families in Gormanston have 8 post-primary schools within 10 km: 5 voluntary secondary schools and 3 ETB schools. Only one teaches girls and boys apart. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franciscan CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 321 | 0.3 km |
| Coláiste Ghlór na MaraVoluntary secondary · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | Gaelcholáiste | 520 | 3.8 km |
| Bremore Educate Together Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 824 | 4.2 km |
| Balbriggan Community CollegeETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 686 | 4.4 km |
| Loreto Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 1,220 | 4.5 km |
| Ardgillan Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,014 | 5.5 km |
| Colaiste na hInseETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 1,021 | 6.3 km |
| Laytown & Drogheda Educate Together Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 520 | 9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Gormanston
No special school is in or near Gormanston. 2 of the 5 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.
Gormanston beside the 169 other Irish towns of 300 to 500 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stradbally | 500 | 2 | 134 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Culdaff | 385 | 1 | 108 | 0 | 100% | 7.9 km |
| Ballinderreen | 383 | 1 | 182 | 0 | 0% | 5.7 km |
| Durrus | 381 | 2 | 101 | 0 | 0% | 8.4 km |
| Fedamore | 381 | 2 | 40 | 0 | 50% | 7.7 km |
| Gormanston | 380 | 7 | 2,680 | 1 | 14% | 0.3 km |
| Turlough | 379 | 1 | 45 | 0 | 0% | 5.6 km |
| Newtownsandes | 378 | 1 | 78 | 0 | 0% | 8.6 km |
| Glencullen | 376 | 3 | 683 | 0 | 0% | 4.4 km |
| Cloonfad | 376 | 1 | 125 | 0 | 100% | 8.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 2 of the other 169 towns than around Gormanston. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 16 of the 170.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Gormanston
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 Gormanston had 2,579 pupils in 2015/16 and 2,680 in 2025/26. Coláiste Ghlór na Mara grew most: +63% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Gormanston
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 Gormanston
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gormanston | 7 | 2,680 | 1 | 14% | 0.3 km |
| Stamullen 1.9 km | 3 | 1,043 | 0 | 0% | 2.1 km |
| Balbriggan 4.2 km | 17 | 8,295 | 2 | 29% | 0.3 km |
| Balrothery 6.6 km | 16 | 7,860 | 2 | 31% | 1.7 km |
| Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington-Donacarney 7.5 km | 11 | 5,783 | 1 | 0% | 1.4 km |
| Skerries 10 km | 14 | 4,988 | 1 | 21% | 0.2 km |
| Drogheda 11 km | 29 | 14,360 | 2 | 28% | 0.5 km |
Balbriggan has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 2. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Gormanston changed by −7%; among its neighbours, Drogheda’s grew most (+7%) and Stamullen’s least (−20%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Gormanston 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 Gormanston
How many schools are there in Gormanston?
In Gormanston or within 3 km of it: 5 primary schools and 2 secondary schools, with 2,680 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Gormanston that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Coláiste Ghlór na Mara teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Gormanston?
No: all 2 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Gormanston?
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 Gormanston?
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).