Photo: P L Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Dungarvan take girls and boys: 25% are single-sex, below Co. Waterford’s towns and Irish towns
Measured that way, Dungarvan is below both Co. Waterford’s towns (56%) and Irish towns (39%). In or within 3 km of Dungarvan, they have 3,623 pupils in all. These schools are described rather than graded, because Ireland publishes no school results and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
Schools in the town or within 3 km of its outline, Department of Education lists for 2025/26; the Ireland figures cover all schools listed.
What stands out about Dungarvan’s schools
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: Scoil na mBraithre (0.5 km), Ardscoil na nDéise (0.5 km) and Dungarvan College-Coláiste Dhún Garbhán (0.6 km). Post-primary choices ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Where the 12 schools in and around Dungarvan 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 Dungarvan’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 Dungarvan
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
1 of Dungarvan’s 12 schools teach every subject through Irish: Scoil Gearbhain.
Who Dungarvan’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Waterford’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 Dungarvan | Co. Waterford | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 18% | 30% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 9% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 52% | 49% | 49% |
| Post-primary pupils at single-sex schools | 14% | 35% | 29% |
| Post-primary pupils at fee-paying schools | 0% | 0% | 6% |
DEIS schools teach 18% of the pupils around Dungarvan, a smaller share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Waterford: 30%). Set beside Ireland, post-primary pupils at single-sex schools stand out most: 14% against 29%. The largest DEIS school here is Dungarvan College-Coláiste Dhún Garbhán, with 247 pupils.
Each of the 12 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S N Dun na MainistreachPrimary | 455 | 49% | ||
| Scoil na mBraithrePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 338 | – | ||
| Ardscoil na nDéisePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 265 | 100% | ||
| Dungarvan College-Coláiste Dhún GarbhánPost-primary · ETB | 247 | 41% | ✓ | |
| St Marys N.S.Primary | 237 | 76% | ✓ | |
| Scoil Naomh SeosamhPrimary | 151 | 0% | ✓ | |
| St Johns Special SchSpecial | 85 | 32% | ||
| Scoil GearbhainPrimary | 310 | 45% | ✓ | |
| St Augustines CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | 1,069 | 53% | ||
| S.N. an Carraig LiathPrimary | 98 | 44% | ||
| S.N. an Garrain BhainPrimary | 225 | 50% | ||
| Glenbeg N.S.Primary | 143 | 45% |
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 Dungarvan’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
11 of Dungarvan’s 12 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Waterford & Lismore (8), Edmund Rice Schools Trust (1) and CEIST (1). 3 of the 12 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 5 patrons of Dungarvan’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
The schools around Dungarvan answer to 5 patrons, and Bishop of Waterford & Lismore leads with 8 of the 12 schools and 47% of their pupils. One is an ETB school.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of Waterford & LismoreS N Dun na Mainistreach, Scoil Gearbhain, St Marys, S.N. an Garrain Bhain, Scoil Naomh Seosamh, Glenbeg, S.N. an Carraig Liath, St Johns Special Sch | Catholic | 8 | 1,704 |
| Order of St Augustine (Augustinians)St Augustines College | Catholic | 1 | 1,069 |
| Edmund Rice Schools TrustScoil na mBraithre | Catholic | 1 | 338 |
| CEISTArdscoil na nDéise | Catholic | 1 | 265 |
| Waterford & Wexford ETBDungarvan College-Coláiste Dhún Garbhán | Multi-denominational | 1 | 247 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Dungarvan
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, 5 of these 11 schools have grown by 5% or more and 3 have shrunk as much; across Ireland the number of pupils changed by +5%.
All 11 schools
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 12 schools in and around Dungarvan
Every school in Dungarvan or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. No letters, no results: Irish schools aren’t ranked one by one.
Inspection reports for Dungarvan’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
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 12 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| S N Dun na MainistreachPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil na mBraithrePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Ardscoil na nDéisePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Dungarvan College-Coláiste Dhún GarbhánPost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Marys N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Naomh SeosamhPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Johns Special SchSpecial | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil GearbhainPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Augustines CollegePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. an Carraig LiathPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. an Garrain BhainPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Glenbeg 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 Dungarvan
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
Families in Dungarvan have 5 post-primary schools within 10 km: 3 voluntary secondary schools and 2 ETB schools. Of these, one teaches only girls or only boys. Just one teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil na mBraithreVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 338 | 0.5 km |
| Ardscoil na nDéiseVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 265 | 0.5 km |
| Dungarvan College-Coláiste Dhún GarbhánETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 247 | 0.6 km |
| St Augustines CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 1,069 | 2.3 km |
| Meánscoil San NioclásETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | Gaeltacht school, DEIS | 159 | 5.8 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Dungarvan
St Johns Special Sch is the special school here, with 85 pupils. 4 of the 7 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.
Dungarvan beside the 85 other Irish towns of 7,100 to 13,600 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mallow | 13,456 | 11 | 4,357 | 1 | 18% | 0.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Kildare | 10,302 | 4 | 2,671 | 1 | 25% | 1.2 km |
| Shannon | 10,256 | 10 | 2,913 | 1 | 20% | 0.6 km |
| Kilmainham | 10,240 | 106 | 27,472 | 4 | 62% | 0.5 km |
| Parnell Square | 10,117 | 124 | 33,167 | 9 | 52% | 0.1 km |
| Dungarvan | 10,081 | 12 | 3,623 | 1 | 25% | 0.5 km |
| Ratoath | 10,077 | 10 | 4,880 | 1 | 0% | 0.7 km |
| Churchtown | 10,044 | 106 | 41,500 | 9 | 13% | 0.2 km |
| Nenagh | 9,895 | 11 | 3,044 | 1 | 0% | 0.1 km |
| Monkstown | 9,831 | 57 | 22,012 | 4 | 11% | 0.3 km |
| … | ||||||
| Dunboyne | 7,155 | 14 | 7,600 | 1 | 7% | 0.3 km |
Among the 85 other towns, 67 have more pupils at their schools than Dungarvan does. 83 of the 86 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Dungarvan
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 Dungarvan had 3,382 pupils in 2015/16 and 3,623 in 2025/26. St Augustines College grew most: +42% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Dungarvan
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 Dungarvan
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dungarvan | 12 | 3,623 | 1 | 25% | 0.5 km |
| Ballinroad 3.4 km | 7 | 2,813 | 1 | 14% | 1.1 km |
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Dungarvan 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 Dungarvan
How many schools are there in Dungarvan?
In Dungarvan or within 3 km of it: 7 primary schools, 4 secondary schools and 1 special school, with 3,623 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Dungarvan that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Scoil Gearbhain teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Dungarvan?
No: all 4 secondary schools here are free.
What is the best school in Dungarvan?
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 Dungarvan?
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).