Photo: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia · Public domainAround Ashford, 25% of schools teach every subject through Irish, more than around Co. Wicklow’s towns or Irish towns
Measured that way, Ashford is above both Co. Wicklow’s towns (9%) and Irish towns (8%). One of its 4 schools teaches every subject through Irish, against 8% of schools across Ireland. 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 Ashford’s schools
More all-Irish schools than most places
Families here have more choice of a school that teaches every subject through Irish than in most of Ireland, where 8% of schools do. The school is Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin (285). Language ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Where the 4 schools in and around Ashford 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 Ashford’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 Ashford
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
1 of Ashford’s 4 schools teach every subject through Irish: Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin.
Who Ashford’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside Co. Wicklow’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
| Share of pupils | Around Ashford | Co. Wicklow | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 29% | 23% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 26% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 50% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 29% of the pupils around Ashford, much as across Ireland (27%; Co. Wicklow: 23%). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 26% against 6%. The largest DEIS school here is St Coen's National School, with 328 pupils.
Each of the 4 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil na Coróine MhuirePrimary | 309 | 52% | ||
| Nuns Cross N.S.Primary | 194 | 48% | ||
| Gaelscoil Chill MhantáinPrimary | 285 | 55% | ✓ | |
| St Coen's National SchoolPrimary | 328 | 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 Ashford’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Ashford’s 4 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Dublin (2), Archbishop of Dublin & Bishop of Glendalough COI (1) and An Foras Pátrúnachta (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 Ashford’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
Archbishop of Dublin is patron of 2 of the 4 schools around Ashford, which teach 57% of their pupils; 3 patrons run them in all.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of DublinSt Coen's, Scoil na Coróine Mhuire | Catholic | 2 | 637 |
| An Foras PátrúnachtaGaelscoil Chill Mhantáin | Inter-denominational | 1 | 285 |
| Archbishop of Dublin & Bishop of Glendalough COINuns Cross | Church of Ireland | 1 | 194 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Ashford
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, 3 of these 4 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 4 schools in and around Ashford
Here are the schools in Ashford or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. No letters, no results: Irish schools aren’t ranked one by one.
Inspection reports for Ashford’s schools
The Inspectorate’s published reports for each school, linked, without ratings
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 4 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Scoil na Coróine MhuirePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Nuns Cross N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Gaelscoil Chill MhantáinPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| St Coen's National SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Ashford
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
4 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Ashford: 2 voluntary secondary schools, one ETB school and one comprehensive school. Of these, one teaches only girls or only boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coláiste Chill MhantáinETB · Inter-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 995 | 4.5 km |
| East Glendalough SchoolComprehensive · Church of Ireland | Girls and boys | – | 365 | 5 km |
| Wicklow Educate Together Secondary SchoolVoluntary secondary · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 404 | 5.6 km |
| Dominican CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls | – | 461 | 6.4 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Ashford
No special school is in or near Ashford. 3 of the 4 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.
Ashford beside the 96 other Irish towns of 1,300 to 2,600 people
Each town’s schools in or within 3 km, listed by population: Ireland publishes no results, so none is ranked
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundoran | 2,599 | 3 | 898 | 0 | 33% | 0.2 km |
| … | ||||||
| Dunmanway | 1,964 | 5 | 1,019 | 0 | 0% | 0.8 km |
| Rathcormac | 1,957 | 3 | 715 | 0 | 0% | 6.6 km |
| Banagher | 1,907 | 3 | 877 | 0 | 0% | 0.5 km |
| Abbeyleix | 1,897 | 2 | 353 | 0 | 0% | 4.5 km |
| Ashford | 1,892 | 4 | 1,116 | 1 | 25% | 4.5 km |
| Newmarket-On-Fergus | 1,887 | 2 | 272 | 0 | 0% | 6.4 km |
| Clones | 1,885 | 3 | 848 | 1 | 100% | 0.5 km |
| Portlaw | 1,881 | 1 | 214 | 0 | 100% | 4.7 km |
| Ballivor | 1,870 | 2 | 248 | 0 | 100% | 9.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ferns | 1,317 | 2 | 324 | 0 | 50% | 10 km |
Of these 96 other towns, 25 count more pupils at their schools than Ashford. 17 of the 97 towns have an all-Irish school within 3 km.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Ashford
Every school in or within 3 km of the town each September, counted where it stands today.
The schools in and around Ashford had 1,003 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,116 in 2025/26. Nuns Cross N.S. grew most: +23% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Ashford
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 Ashford
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
The roll around Ashford moved +5% since 2019/20; nearby, Kilcoole grew most (+52%) and Newtownmountkennedy least (+12%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Ashford 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 Ashford
How many schools are there in Ashford?
In Ashford or within 3 km of it: 4 primary schools, with 1,116 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Ashford that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin teach every subject through Irish.
Is there a secondary school in Ashford?
Not in Ashford or within 3 km of it; the nearest is Coláiste Chill Mhantáin, 4.5 km away.
What is the best school in Ashford?
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 Ashford?
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).