Photo: Mike Searle · CC BY-SA 2.0Few schools around Clara teach through Irish: 0%, below Co. Offaly’s towns and Irish towns
On this, Clara is below both Co. Offaly’s towns (14%) and Irish towns (8%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Ardscoil Chiaráin Naofa, has 333 pupils. 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 Clara’s schools
Extra support for many schools
Many schools here are in DEIS, which gives schools in disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and help; across Ireland, 30% of schools are. In DEIS: Ardscoil Chiaráin Naofa (333), S.N. Phroinsiais Naofa (186) and Clara Convent N.S. (180). Who runs them ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Who runs Clara’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Clara’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Meath (2) and Laois & Offaly ETB (1). 3 of the 3 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 3 schools in and around Clara
Here are the schools in Clara or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Without school-level results from Ireland, the cards show no letters.
Where the 3 schools in and around Clara 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 Clara’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 Clara
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Clara teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Clara’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Offaly’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 Clara | Co. Offaly | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 100% | 42% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 2% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
Around Clara, 100% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 42% in Co. Offaly. Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%. The biggest school in DEIS is Ardscoil Chiaráin Naofa (333 pupils).
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardscoil Chiaráin NaofaPost-primary · ETB | 333 | 46% | ✓ | |
| S.N. Phroinsiais NaofaPrimary | 186 | 0% | ✓ | |
| Clara Convent N.S.Primary | 180 | 100% | ✓ |
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 2 patrons of Clara’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
Bishop of Meath is patron of 2 of the 3 schools around Clara, which teach 52% of their pupils; 2 patrons run them in all. One is an ETB school.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of MeathS.N. Phroinsiais Naofa, Clara Convent | Catholic | 2 | 366 |
| Laois & Offaly ETBArdscoil Chiaráin Naofa | Multi-denominational | 1 | 333 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Clara
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 3 schools, 1 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 Clara’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 3 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Ardscoil Chiaráin NaofaPost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Phroinsiais NaofaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Clara Convent 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 Clara
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Families in Clara have 4 post-primary schools within 10 km: 2 voluntary secondary schools, one ETB school and one community school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardscoil Chiaráin NaofaETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 333 | 0.3 km |
| Killina Presentation Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 759 | 8.1 km |
| Meán Scoil an ChlochairVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 740 | 8.9 km |
| Moate Community SchoolCommunity school · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 913 | 9.6 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Clara
No special school is in or near Clara. 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.
Clara beside the 86 other Irish towns of 2,400 to 4,600 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saggart | 4,573 | 23 | 9,161 | 3 | 61% | 0.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Rahoon | 3,486 | 29 | 10,562 | 5 | 21% | 1.6 km |
| Rathnew | 3,482 | 11 | 4,543 | 1 | 36% | 1 km |
| Cleaboy | 3,454 | 29 | 11,782 | 1 | 45% | 0.7 km |
| Limerick City Centre | 3,434 | 43 | 14,494 | 5 | 51% | 0.4 km |
| Clara | 3,403 | 3 | 699 | 0 | 100% | 0.3 km |
| Annacotty | 3,398 | 8 | 4,443 | 1 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Tower | 3,300 | 6 | 2,638 | 1 | 17% | 3.2 km |
| Rathangan | 3,263 | 3 | 1,345 | 0 | 33% | 0.6 km |
| Crosshaven | 3,263 | 5 | 1,057 | 0 | 20% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Prosperous | 2,413 | 2 | 1,169 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
Of these 86 other towns, 82 count more pupils at their schools than Clara. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 52 of the 87.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Clara
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 Clara had 671 pupils in 2015/16 and 699 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Clara
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 Clara
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
Tullamore has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. The roll around Clara moved −5% since 2019/20; nearby, Kilbeggan grew most (+15%) and Tullamore least (+1%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Clara 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 Clara
How many schools are there in Clara?
In Clara or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 699 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Clara that teach through Irish?
None in Clara 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 Clara?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Clara?
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 Clara?
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).