Photo: Jonathan Thacker · CC BY-SA 2.0Most post-primaries around Kilmacthomas take girls and boys: 0% are single-sex, below Co. Waterford’s towns and Irish towns
On this, Kilmacthomas is below both Co. Waterford’s towns (56%) and Irish towns (39%). St Declan's Community College, with 783 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.
The 4 schools in and around Kilmacthomas
Every school in Kilmacthomas 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.
Where the 4 schools in and around Kilmacthomas 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 Kilmacthomas’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 Kilmacthomas
Schools by the language they teach in; the black tick is Ireland’s share.
None of the 4 schools in and around Kilmacthomas teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Kilmacthomas’s schools serve
Shares of the pupils at the area’s schools, beside 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 Kilmacthomas | Co. Waterford | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 12% | 30% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 50% | 49% | 49% |
12% of the pupils around Kilmacthomas are at a DEIS school, fewer than the 27% across Ireland (30% in Co. Waterford). Where this area differs most from Ireland is pupils at all-Irish schools, at 0% against 6%. Scoil Choill Mhic Thomaisin, with 133 pupils, is the largest school here in DEIS.
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Declan's Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 783 | 49% | ||
| Scoil Choill Mhic ThomaisinPrimary | 133 | 55% | ✓ | |
| S N na bhFiodhPrimary | 58 | 43% | ||
| S N an Baile NuaPrimary | 99 | 57% |
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 Kilmacthomas’s schools
Who runs each school, as listed for 2025/26; the bars give the share of schools of each kind.
3 of Kilmacthomas’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Waterford & Lismore (3) and Waterford & Wexford 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 2 patrons of Kilmacthomas’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
The schools around Kilmacthomas answer to 2 patrons, and Bishop of Waterford & Lismore leads with 3 of the 4 schools and 27% of their pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop of Waterford & LismoreScoil Choill Mhic Thomaisin, S N an Baile Nua, S N na bhFiodh | Catholic | 3 | 290 |
| Waterford & Wexford ETBSt Declan's | Multi-denominational | 1 | 783 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Kilmacthomas
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, 0 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.
Inspection reports for Kilmacthomas’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, none rated
Inspectors visit every kind of school. Whole-school evaluations look at teaching and learning, leadership and management; subject inspections look at one subject; follow-through inspections check whether earlier advice was taken. Each report is published 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 4 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| St Declan's Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Scoil Choill Mhic ThomaisinPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S N na bhFiodhPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S N an Baile NuaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Kilmacthomas
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of Kilmacthomas is St Declan's Community College, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Declan's Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 783 | 0.5 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Kilmacthomas beside the 178 other Irish towns of 600 to 1,200 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urlingford | 1,196 | 2 | 882 | 0 | 100% | 3.1 km |
| … | ||||||
| Kinsaley | 906 | 37 | 14,215 | 3 | 30% | 2.2 km |
| Clarinbridge | 905 | 2 | 451 | 0 | 0% | 5.5 km |
| Cratloe | 899 | 1 | 278 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| Killeagh | 895 | 1 | 203 | 0 | 0% | 8.5 km |
| Kilmacthomas | 891 | 4 | 1,073 | 0 | 25% | 0.5 km |
| Parteen | 889 | 21 | 7,682 | 2 | 57% | 1.6 km |
| Kilmacrennan | 888 | 1 | 231 | 0 | 0% | 7.7 km |
| Bruff | 887 | 1 | 219 | 0 | 0% | 7.3 km |
| Rosses Point | 883 | 2 | 210 | 0 | 0% | 5.6 km |
| … | ||||||
| Na Dúnaibh | 601 | 2 | 202 | 1 | 100% | 14 km |
Among the 178 other towns, 24 have more pupils at their schools than Kilmacthomas does. 16 of the 179 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Kilmacthomas
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Kilmacthomas had 989 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,073 in 2025/26.
Pupils at schools in and around Kilmacthomas
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 Kilmacthomas
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilmacthomas | 4 | 1,073 | 0 | 25% | 0.5 km |
| Portlaw 12 km | 1 | 214 | 0 | 100% | 4.7 km |
| Ballinroad 15 km | 7 | 2,813 | 1 | 14% | 1.1 km |
| Mooncoin 16 km | 4 | 765 | 0 | 75% | 0.6 km |
| Carrick-on-Suir 16 km | 8 | 2,088 | 1 | 63% | 0.6 km |
| Piltown 18 km | 1 | 254 | 0 | 0% | 3.8 km |
| Dungarvan 18 km | 12 | 3,623 | 1 | 25% | 0.5 km |
Ballinroad has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. Pupils around Kilmacthomas: +0% since 2019/20. Among the neighbours, Ballinroad led (+11%) and Piltown trailed (−24%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Kilmacthomas 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 Kilmacthomas
How many schools are there in Kilmacthomas?
In Kilmacthomas or within 3 km of it: 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,073 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Kilmacthomas that teach through Irish?
None in Kilmacthomas 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 Kilmacthomas?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Kilmacthomas?
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 Kilmacthomas?
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).