Pupil numbers around Cloontuskert are rising faster than around Irish towns: +22% since 2019/20
On this, Cloontuskert is above Irish towns (+4%). Its schools have 514 pupils, 22% more than in 2019/20. Ireland publishes no school results, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them, so these schools are described here, never 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 Cloontuskert’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: Lanesboro Community College (275), Lanesborough Primary School (88) and Cloontuskert National School (82). Who runs them ↓
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 ↓
One school growing fast
Cloontuskert National School has grown from 64 pupils in 2019/20 to 82, 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.
Who runs Cloontuskert’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Cloontuskert’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Elphin (2), Bishop of Ardagh & Clonmacnoise (1) and Longford & Westmeath ETB (1). 3 of the 4 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.
Pupil numbers around Cloontuskert
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 Cloontuskert had 410 pupils in 2015/16 and 514 in 2025/26. Lanesboro Community College grew most: +42% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Cloontuskert
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.
The 4 schools in and around Cloontuskert
Each school in or within 3 km of Cloontuskert links to a page of its own. Letters and results are missing here for a reason: Ireland publishes neither school by school.
Where the 4 schools in and around Cloontuskert 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 Cloontuskert’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 Cloontuskert
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 4 schools in and around Cloontuskert teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Cloontuskert’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside Co. Roscommon’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 Cloontuskert | Co. Roscommon | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 87% | 29% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 1% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 48% | 49% |
Around Cloontuskert, 87% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 29% in Co. Roscommon. Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%. The biggest school in DEIS is Lanesboro Community College (275 pupils).
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloontuskert National SchoolPrimary | 82 | 57% | ✓ | |
| Scoil MhuirePrimary | 69 | 45% | ||
| Lanesborough Primary SchoolPrimary | 88 | 51% | ✓ | |
| Lanesboro Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 275 | 47% | ✓ |
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 Cloontuskert’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
The schools around Cloontuskert answer to 3 patrons, and Bishop of Elphin leads with 2 of the 4 schools and 29% of their pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of ElphinCloontuskert, Scoil Mhuire | Catholic | 2 | 151 |
| Longford & Westmeath ETBLanesboro | Inter-denominational | 1 | 275 |
| Bishop of Ardagh & ClonmacnoiseLanesborough Primary School | Catholic | 1 | 88 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Cloontuskert
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, 2 of these 4 schools have grown by 5% or more and 1 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.
Inspection reports for Cloontuskert’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
Each school is visited by inspectors from time to time, for a whole-school evaluation of teaching, learning and leadership, for one subject, or to follow up earlier advice, and every report is posted 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 4 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Cloontuskert National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil MhuirePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Lanesborough Primary SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Lanesboro Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Cloontuskert
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Cloontuskert is Lanesboro Community College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lanesboro Community CollegeETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 275 | 3.6 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Cloontuskert
No special school is in or near Cloontuskert. 1 of the 3 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.
Schools in the towns around Cloontuskert
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloontuskert | 4 | 514 | 0 | 75% | 3.6 km |
| Lanesborough-Ballyleague 2.5 km | 4 | 514 | 0 | 75% | 1.2 km |
| Roscommon 14 km | 7 | 2,589 | 1 | 29% | 0.7 km |
| Longford 15 km | 12 | 3,607 | 1 | 83% | 0.2 km |
Roscommon has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Cloontuskert changed by +22%; among its neighbours, Lanesborough-Ballyleague’s grew most (+22%) and Longford’s least (+3%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Cloontuskert 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 Cloontuskert
How many schools are there in Cloontuskert?
In Cloontuskert or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 514 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Cloontuskert that teach through Irish?
None in Cloontuskert 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 Cloontuskert?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Cloontuskert?
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 Cloontuskert?
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).