Most post-primaries around Elphin take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Irish towns
Measured that way, Elphin is below Irish towns (39%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Elphin Community College, has 206 pupils. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
Counted from the Department of Education’s 2025/26 lists: every school in the town or within 3 km of it, against every school in Ireland.
What stands out about Elphin’s schools
One school growing fast
Elphin Community College has grown from 162 pupils in 2019/20 to 206, 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.
The 2 schools in and around Elphin
Each school in or within 3 km of Elphin links to a page of its own. No letters, no results: Irish schools aren’t ranked one by one.
Where the 2 schools in and around Elphin 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 Elphin’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 Elphin
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 2 schools in and around Elphin teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Elphin’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, 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 Elphin | Co. Roscommon | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 40% | 29% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 1% | 6% |
| Girls | 46% | 48% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 40% of the pupils around Elphin, a larger share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Roscommon: 29%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of pupils at all-Irish schools: 0% here against 6%. The biggest school in DEIS is Abbeycarton N.S. (138 pupils).
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elphin Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 206 | 48% | ||
| Abbeycarton N.S.Primary | 138 | 44% | ✓ |
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 Elphin’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
1 of Elphin’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Galway & Roscommon ETB (1) and Bishop of Elphin (1). 1 of the 2 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.
How children get a place in Elphin
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
1 schools here have grown by 5% or more since 2019/20, 1 have shrunk by as much, out of 2; across Ireland: +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 Elphin’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, 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 |
|---|---|
| Elphin Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Abbeycarton 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 Elphin
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Families in Elphin have 2 post-primary schools within 10 km: one ETB school and one voluntary secondary school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elphin Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 206 | 0.7 km |
| Scoil MhuireVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 671 | 9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Elphin beside the 187 other Irish towns of 500 to 1,000 people
Towns of a similar size, with the schools in or within 3 km of each; ordered by population, never ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castletownbere | 999 | 3 | 524 | 0 | 67% | 0.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Whitechurch | 719 | 3 | 1,102 | 0 | 0% | 3 km |
| Carlanstown | 718 | 1 | 165 | 0 | 0% | 4.5 km |
| Louth | 717 | 1 | 181 | 0 | 0% | 10 km |
| Killygordon | 716 | 4 | 318 | 0 | 100% | 5.9 km |
| Elphin | 715 | 2 | 344 | 0 | 50% | 0.7 km |
| Delvin | 714 | 3 | 163 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| Shinrone | 707 | 1 | 121 | 0 | 100% | 5.5 km |
| Borris | 702 | 2 | 754 | 0 | 0% | 1.5 km |
| Clonmellon | 702 | 1 | 178 | 0 | 0% | 8.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Stradbally | 500 | 2 | 134 | 0 | 0% | 8.7 km |
Of these 187 other towns, 72 count more pupils at their schools than Elphin. Teaching through Irish is on offer within 3 km in 16 of the 188.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Elphin
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Elphin had 292 pupils in 2015/16 and 344 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Elphin
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 Elphin
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elphin | 2 | 344 | 0 | 50% | 0.7 km |
| Carrick-On-Shannon 13 km | 5 | 1,575 | 1 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Boyle 16 km | 4 | 1,103 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
Carrick-On-Shannon has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Of Elphin’s neighbours, Boyle saw the most growth in pupils since 2019/20 (+32%) and Carrick-On-Shannon the least (+4%); Elphin itself: +8%.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Elphin 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 Elphin
How many schools are there in Elphin?
In Elphin or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 secondary school, with 344 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Elphin that teach through Irish?
None in Elphin 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 Elphin?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Elphin?
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 Elphin?
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).