Photo: Anne Burgess · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Collooney take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Irish towns
Set beside other towns, Collooney comes out below Irish towns (39%). St Marys College, with 264 pupils, is the only secondary school within 3 km. 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 Collooney’s schools
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 ↓
A wide choice at twelve
5 post-primary schools lie within 10 km, so families here have a real choice at twelve; each admits on its own policy. The nearest: St Marys College (3.4 km), Coola Post Primary School (8.4 km) and Summerhill College (9.4 km). Post-primary choices ↓
Drawn from the Department of Education’s lists; none of it judges how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Collooney
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 Collooney had 437 pupils in 2015/16 and 580 in 2025/26. St Marys College grew most: +103% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Collooney
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 3 schools in and around Collooney
Every school in Collooney or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. Results by school aren’t published in Ireland, so the cards carry none.
Where the 3 schools in and around Collooney 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 Collooney’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 Collooney
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Collooney teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Collooney’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside 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 Collooney | Co. Sligo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 42% | 24% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 2% | 6% |
| Girls | 44% | 48% | 49% |
42% of the pupils around Collooney are at a DEIS school, more than the 27% across Ireland (24% in Co. Sligo). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%. The largest DEIS school here is Scoil Mhuire agus Iosaf, with 241 pupils.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil Mhuire agus IosafPrimary | 241 | 44% | ✓ | |
| St Pauls N.S. CollooneyPrimary | 75 | 60% | ||
| St Marys CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 264 | 41% |
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 Collooney’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Collooney’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Achonry (1), Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry COI (1) and CEIST (1). 1 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 patrons of Collooney’s schools
Each school has a patron that owns it and sets its ethos; its board of management runs it.
3 patrons run the 3 schools around Collooney; the largest, CEIST, has 1 of them and 46% of the pupils.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEISTSt Marys College | Catholic | 1 | 264 |
| Bishop of AchonryScoil Mhuire agus Iosaf | Catholic | 1 | 241 |
| Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry COISt Pauls N.S. Collooney | Church of Ireland | 1 | 75 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Collooney
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 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.
Inspection reports for Collooney’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 3 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Scoil Mhuire agus IosafPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Pauls N.S. CollooneyPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Marys CollegePost-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 Collooney
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Families in Collooney have 5 post-primary schools within 10 km: 4 voluntary secondary schools and one ETB school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Marys CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 264 | 3.4 km |
| Coola Post Primary SchoolETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 514 | 8.4 km |
| Summerhill CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 1,155 | 9.4 km |
| Mercy CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 718 | 9.7 km |
| Coláiste MuireVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 325 | 9.9 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Collooney
No special school is in or near Collooney. 1 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.
Collooney beside the 88 other Irish towns of 1,300 to 2,400 people
Schools in or within 3 km of each town, by population; none is ranked, as Ireland publishes no results
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballaghaderreen | 2,387 | 2 | 968 | 0 | 100% | 0.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Castlebridge | 1,850 | 3 | 459 | 0 | 0% | 5.1 km |
| Oughterard | 1,846 | 2 | 730 | 0 | 50% | 0.6 km |
| Watergrasshill | 1,840 | 1 | 391 | 0 | 0% | 8.8 km |
| Derrinturn | 1,837 | 3 | 426 | 0 | 100% | 8.3 km |
| Collooney | 1,797 | 3 | 580 | 0 | 33% | 3.4 km |
| Rosslare | 1,795 | 3 | 512 | 0 | 100% | 8.7 km |
| Kilmallock | 1,761 | 2 | 786 | 0 | 100% | 0.3 km |
| Ballysadare | 1,747 | 4 | 806 | 0 | 25% | 0.2 km |
| Fethard | 1,738 | 2 | 493 | 0 | 100% | 0.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ferns | 1,317 | 2 | 324 | 0 | 50% | 10 km |
Of the other 88 towns, 55 have more pupils at the schools around them than Collooney. 13 of the 89 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Collooney
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collooney | 3 | 580 | 0 | 33% | 3.4 km |
| Ballysadare 3.6 km | 4 | 806 | 0 | 25% | 0.2 km |
| Coolaney 7.3 km | 1 | 174 | 0 | 0% | 7.5 km |
| Sligo 9.9 km | 17 | 6,012 | 1 | 35% | 0.6 km |
| Ballymote 11 km | 3 | 694 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Strandhill 12 km | 1 | 252 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
Sligo has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Pupils around Collooney: +31% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Ballysadare led (+21%) and Coolaney trailed (−19%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Collooney 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 Collooney
How many schools are there in Collooney?
In Collooney or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 580 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Collooney that teach through Irish?
None in Collooney 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 Collooney?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Collooney?
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 Collooney?
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).