Photo: Deirge Ó Dhaoinebeaga · CC BY-SA 4.0Fewer single-sex secondaries around Ballymote than around Irish towns: 0%
Set beside other towns, Ballymote comes out below Irish towns (39%). 1 primary school and 2 secondary schools are in or within 3 km of Ballymote, with 694 pupils between them. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.
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 Ballymote’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: Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal (215) and Corran College (154). Who runs them ↓
One school growing fast
The fastest-growing school here is Corran College: 74 pupils in 2019/20, 154 now. Getting a place ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Who runs Ballymote’s schools
Each school’s ethos, 2025/26: the bars show the share of schools of each kind.
2 of Ballymote’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Mayo, Sligo & Leitrim ETB (1), Bishop of Achonry (1) and CEIST (1). 2 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.
Where the 3 schools in and around Ballymote 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 Ballymote’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 Ballymote
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 3 schools in and around Ballymote teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Ballymote’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Sligo’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 Ballymote | Co. Sligo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 53% | 24% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 2% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 48% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 0% | 10% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 8% | 6% |
DEIS schools teach 53% of the pupils around Ballymote, a larger share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Sligo: 24%). Furthest from Ireland’s mix is the share of post-primary pupils at single-sex schools: 0% here against 29%. The biggest school in DEIS is Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal (215 pupils).
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corran CollegePost-primary · ETB | 154 | 48% | ✓ | |
| Scoil Mhuire Gan SmalPrimary | 215 | 49% | ✓ | |
| Coláiste MuirePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 325 | 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 Ballymote’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
CEIST is patron of 1 of the 3 schools around Ballymote, which teach 47% of their pupils; 3 patrons run them in all. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEISTColáiste Muire | Catholic | 1 | 325 |
| Bishop of AchonryScoil Mhuire Gan Smal | Catholic | 1 | 215 |
| Mayo, Sligo & Leitrim ETBCorran College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 154 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Ballymote
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 3 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.
The 3 schools in and around Ballymote
Here are the schools in Ballymote or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
Inspection reports for Ballymote’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, none rated
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 3 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Corran CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Mhuire Gan SmalPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Coláiste MuirePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Ballymote
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
Families in Ballymote 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corran CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 154 | 0.5 km |
| Coláiste MuireVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 325 | 0.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Ballymote beside the 109 other Irish towns of 1,200 to 2,300 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balrothery | 2,282 | 16 | 7,860 | 2 | 31% | 1.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Lanesborough-Ballyleague | 1,733 | 4 | 514 | 0 | 75% | 1.2 km |
| Dunmore East | 1,731 | 1 | 196 | 0 | 0% | 9.1 km |
| Millstreet | 1,722 | 4 | 703 | 0 | 0% | 0.9 km |
| Ballymahon | 1,714 | 5 | 1,663 | 0 | 40% | 0.3 km |
| Ballymote | 1,711 | 3 | 694 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Convoy | 1,702 | 4 | 1,290 | 0 | 75% | 4 km |
| Tullyallen | 1,697 | 1 | 411 | 0 | 0% | 3.7 km |
| Portumna | 1,690 | 2 | 741 | 0 | 50% | 0.2 km |
| Castledermot | 1,685 | 2 | 678 | 0 | 0% | 0.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Clonee | 1,205 | 25 | 12,320 | 2 | 28% | 1.3 km |
Of these 109 other towns, 58 count more pupils at their schools than Ballymote. 16 of the 110 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Ballymote
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 Ballymote had 563 pupils in 2015/16 and 694 in 2025/26. Corran College grew most: +108% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Ballymote
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 Ballymote
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballymote | 3 | 694 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Collooney 11 km | 3 | 580 | 0 | 33% | 3.4 km |
| Coolaney 11 km | 1 | 174 | 0 | 0% | 7.5 km |
| Ballysadare 14 km | 4 | 806 | 0 | 25% | 0.2 km |
| Tubbercurry 15 km | 4 | 1,130 | 0 | 25% | 1.7 km |
Since 2019/20 the pupils around Ballymote changed by +15%; among its neighbours, Collooney’s grew most (+31%) and Coolaney’s least (−19%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ballymote 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 Ballymote
How many schools are there in Ballymote?
In Ballymote or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 2 secondary schools, with 694 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ballymote that teach through Irish?
None in Ballymote 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 Ballymote?
No: all 2 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Ballymote?
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 Ballymote?
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).