Photo: Sarah777 · CC BY-SA 2.0DEIS support is less common around Ballinagar: 0% of schools, below Co. Offaly’s towns and Irish towns
That puts Ballinagar below both Co. Offaly’s towns (71%) and Irish towns (35%). 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 Ballinagar 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 Ballinagar’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 Ballinagar’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Ballinagar’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. Their patron: Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin (2). None of the 2 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.
Teaching through Irish in and around Ballinagar
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Ballinagar teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Ballinagar’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Offaly’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Ballinagar | Co. Offaly | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 42% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 2% | 6% |
| Girls | 44% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 0% of the pupils around Ballinagar, a smaller share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Offaly: 42%). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.N. Sheosaimh NaofaPrimary | 193 | 41% | ||
| Geashill 1 N.S.Primary | 126 | 48% |
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 Ballinagar
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
Since 2019/20, 1 of these 2 schools have grown by 5% or more and 0 have shrunk as much; across Ireland the number of 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 2 schools in and around Ballinagar
Each school in or within 3 km of Ballinagar links to a page of its own. No letters and no results: Ireland publishes none school by school.
Inspection reports for Ballinagar’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 2 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| S.N. Sheosaimh NaofaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Geashill 1 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 Ballinagar
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Families in Ballinagar have 2 post-primary schools within 10 km: one voluntary secondary school and one ETB school. Of these, one teaches only girls or only boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sacred Heart Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 571 | 10 km |
| Tullamore CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 742 | 10 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Ballinagar
No special school is in or near Ballinagar. 2 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.
Ballinagar beside the 224 other Irish towns of 200 to 400 people
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km, listed by population: Ireland publishes no results, so none is ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crossbarry | 399 | 2 | 184 | 0 | 0% | 8.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Rosscahill | 327 | 1 | 261 | 0 | 0% | 7.7 km |
| Adamstown | 326 | 2 | 630 | 0 | 100% | 0.4 km |
| Farran | 326 | 1 | 149 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
| Model Village or Dripsey | 323 | 1 | 100 | 0 | 0% | 3.6 km |
| Ballinagar | 321 | 2 | 319 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Gortnahoo | 321 | 1 | 132 | 0 | 100% | 8.3 km |
| Abbeyknockmoy | 318 | 1 | 172 | 0 | 100% | 10 km |
| Goresbridge | 317 | 2 | 80 | 0 | 0% | 6.4 km |
| Killimor | 317 | 1 | 136 | 0 | 0% | 9.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Lahardane | 200 | 1 | 76 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 33 of the other 224 towns than around Ballinagar. 17 of the 225 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Ballinagar
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Ballinagar had 304 pupils in 2015/16 and 319 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Ballinagar
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 Ballinagar
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballinagar | 2 | 319 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Daingean 5.1 km | 1 | 261 | 0 | 100% | 13 km |
| Tullamore 10 km | 14 | 4,273 | 1 | 43% | 0.4 km |
| Portarlington 15 km | 5 | 2,657 | 0 | 0% | 1.3 km |
| Kilbeggan 16 km | 2 | 966 | 0 | 0% | 1 km |
| Mountmellick 16 km | 5 | 1,405 | 0 | 80% | 0.3 km |
| Rochfortbridge 17 km | 2 | 1,343 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
Tullamore has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. The roll around Ballinagar moved +3% since 2019/20; nearby, Rochfortbridge grew most (+18%) and Portarlington least (−3%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ballinagar 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 Ballinagar
How many schools are there in Ballinagar?
In Ballinagar or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools, with 319 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ballinagar that teach through Irish?
None in Ballinagar or within 3 km of it teaches every subject through Irish; some teach it as a subject only.
Is there a secondary school in Ballinagar?
Not in Ballinagar or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Sacred Heart Secondary School, 10 km away.
What is the best school in Ballinagar?
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 Ballinagar?
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).