Photo: Sarah777 · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Newport take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Tipperary’s towns and Irish towns
For Newport, that is below both Co. Tipperary’s towns (67%) and Irish towns (39%). In or within 3 km of Newport: 2 primary schools and 2 secondary schools. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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 Newport’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 ↓
One school growing fast
St. Mary's Secondary School has grown from 566 pupils in 2019/20 to 719, 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.
Pupil numbers around Newport
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Newport had 1,144 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,527 in 2025/26. Newport College grew most: +72% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Newport
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.
Where the 4 schools in and around Newport 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 Newport’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 Newport
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
None of the 4 schools in and around Newport teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Newport’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Tipperary’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 Newport | Co. Tipperary | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 27% | 31% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 3% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 0% | 41% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 4% | 6% |
Around Newport, 27% of pupils attend a school in DEIS, near Ireland’s 27% and Co. Tipperary’s 31%. Set beside Ireland, post-primary pupils at single-sex schools stand out most: 0% against 29%. The largest DEIS school here is Newport College, with 407 pupils.
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Mary's Secondary SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 719 | 48% | ||
| Newport CollegePost-primary · ETB | 407 | 45% | ✓ | |
| Convent of MercyPrimary | 266 | 76% | ||
| S N na mBuachailliPrimary | 135 | 0% |
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 Newport’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Newport’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Cashel & Emly (2), CEIST (1) and Tipperary ETB (1). 1 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.
The 3 patrons of Newport’s schools
Patrons own the schools and set their ethos; boards of management run them day to day.
The schools around Newport answer to 3 patrons, and Archbishop of Cashel & Emly leads with 2 of the 4 schools and 26% of their pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of Cashel & EmlyConvent of Mercy, S N na mBuachailli | Catholic | 2 | 401 |
| CEISTSt. Mary's | Catholic | 1 | 719 |
| Tipperary ETBNewport College | Multi-denominational | 1 | 407 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Newport
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 2 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 4 schools in and around Newport
Each school in or within 3 km of Newport links to a page of its own. No school here carries a letter or a result: Ireland publishes neither for individual schools.
Inspection reports for Newport’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
The Inspectorate inspects schools in several ways: a whole-school evaluation covers teaching, learning and how the school is led; a subject inspection looks at one subject; a follow-through checks on earlier advice. Reports go on gov.ie with the school’s reply.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 4 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| St. Mary's Secondary SchoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Newport CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Convent of MercyPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S N na mBuachailliPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Newport
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
Within 10 km of Newport there are 3 post-primary schools: 2 voluntary secondary schools and one ETB school. Only one teaches girls and boys apart. One of them charges fees. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Mary's Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 719 | 0.4 km |
| Newport CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 407 | 0.8 km |
| Glenstal Abbey SchoolVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | Fee-paying, Boarding | 203 | 5.3 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Newport beside the 92 other Irish towns of 1,500 to 2,900 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carna | 2,897 | 60 | 18,688 | 4 | 58% | 0.9 km |
| … | ||||||
| Rosslare Harbour | 2,247 | 3 | 468 | 0 | 67% | 13 km |
| Ballyshannon | 2,246 | 6 | 1,236 | 1 | 83% | 0.6 km |
| Abbeyfeale | 2,206 | 5 | 1,060 | 0 | 40% | 0.7 km |
| Edgeworthstown | 2,199 | 3 | 423 | 0 | 33% | 11 km |
| Newport | 2,183 | 4 | 1,527 | 0 | 25% | 0.4 km |
| Killorglin | 2,163 | 4 | 1,406 | 0 | 50% | 0.4 km |
| Dunleer | 2,143 | 5 | 1,205 | 0 | 20% | 0.8 km |
| Mountrath | 2,070 | 7 | 1,306 | 1 | 29% | 0.8 km |
| Bunclody | 2,053 | 5 | 1,912 | 0 | 40% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Graiguenamanagh-Tinnahinch | 1,506 | 4 | 399 | 0 | 75% | 0.3 km |
Among the 92 other towns, 19 have more pupils at their schools than Newport does. 25 of the 93 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 Newport
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport | 4 | 1,527 | 0 | 25% | 0.4 km |
| Castleconnell 6.3 km | 2 | 536 | 0 | 0% | 5.9 km |
| Moroe 6.3 km | 2 | 345 | 0 | 0% | 1.3 km |
| Annacotty 9.8 km | 8 | 4,443 | 1 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Killaloe 11 km | 4 | 1,336 | 0 | 50% | 0.7 km |
| Castletroy 11 km | 29 | 10,543 | 3 | 52% | 1.3 km |
| Ballina 12 km | 4 | 1,336 | 0 | 50% | 1.1 km |
Castletroy has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 3. Pupils around Newport: +22% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Annacotty led (+19%) and Moroe trailed (−16%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Newport 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 Newport
How many schools are there in Newport?
In Newport or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 2 secondary schools, with 1,527 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Newport that teach through Irish?
None in Newport 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 Newport?
No: all 2 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Newport?
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 Newport?
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).