Photo: P L Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0Around Blessington, only 0% of schools are in DEIS, fewer than around Co. Wicklow’s towns or Irish towns
That puts Blessington below both Co. Wicklow’s towns (23%) and Irish towns (35%). 3 of its 6 schools are multi- or inter-denominational, against 14% 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.
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 Blessington’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 na Lochanna (151). Language ↓
A choice beyond the church schools
Most schools in Ireland have a church patron; here more of them are multi- or inter-denominational than in most places (14% across Ireland). They are Blessington Community College (737), Gaelscoil na Lochanna (151) and Blessington Educate Together NS (95). Who runs them ↓
No school in DEIS
None of the schools here is in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas; across Ireland, 30% of schools are. Who runs them ↓
One school growing fast
Of the schools here, Blessington Community College has grown fastest, from 511 in 2019/20 to 737. Getting a place ↓
Facts from the Department of Education’s lists; nothing here judges how well a school teaches.
Teaching through Irish in and around Blessington
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
1 of Blessington’s 6 schools teach every subject through Irish: Gaelscoil na Lochanna.
Who runs Blessington’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
2 of Blessington’s 6 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Archbishop of Dublin (2), Kildare & Wicklow ETB (1) and An Foras Pátrúnachta (1). None of the 6 is 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.
Where the 6 schools in and around Blessington 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 Blessington’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.
Who Blessington’s schools serve
How the area’s pupils divide, against Co. Wicklow’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 Blessington | Co. Wicklow | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 0% | 23% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 9% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 49% | 49% | 49% |
Around Blessington, 0% of pupils attend a school in DEIS; across Ireland it is 27%, and 23% in Co. Wicklow.
Each of the 6 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blessington Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 737 | 53% | ||
| S.N. Mhuire Senior SchoolPrimary | 296 | 48% | ||
| S.N. MuirePrimary | 237 | 46% | ||
| Gaelscoil na LochannaPrimary | 151 | 46% | ✓ | |
| Blessington 1 N.S.Primary | 195 | 45% | ||
| Blessington Educate Together NSPrimary | 95 | 48% |
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.
The 5 patrons of Blessington’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
Of the 6 schools around Blessington, 2 have Archbishop of Dublin as patron, teaching 31% of the pupils; 5 patrons in all. An Education and Training Board runs one of them. Educate Together runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop of DublinS.N. Mhuire Senior School, S.N. Muire | Catholic | 2 | 533 |
| Kildare & Wicklow ETBBlessington | Multi-denominational | 1 | 737 |
| Archbishop of Dublin & Bishop of Glendalough COIBlessington 1 | Church of Ireland | 1 | 195 |
| An Foras PátrúnachtaGaelscoil na Lochanna | Inter-denominational | 1 | 151 |
| Educate TogetherBlessington Educate Together NS | Multi-denominational | 1 | 95 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Blessington
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
Of these 6 schools, 2 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 4 have lost as much; Ireland’s 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 6 schools in and around Blessington
Here are the schools in Blessington or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. Letters and results are missing here for a reason: Ireland publishes neither school by school.
Inspection reports for Blessington’s schools
The Department of Education’s Inspectorate: every school’s reports linked, none rated
Each school is visited by inspectors from time to time, for a whole-school evaluation of teaching, learning and leadership, for one subject, or to follow up earlier advice, and every report is posted 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 6 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| Blessington Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. Mhuire Senior SchoolPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S.N. MuirePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Gaelscoil na LochannaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Blessington 1 N.S.Primary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Blessington Educate Together NSPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of Blessington
Every post-primary school within 10 km of the town; families choose and apply to each, at about twelve
3 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Blessington: 2 ETB schools and one voluntary secondary school. Of these, one teaches only girls or only boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blessington Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | – | 737 | 0.2 km |
| Piper's Hill CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 1,049 | 9.1 km |
| Meánscoil Iognáid RisVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Boys | – | 1,013 | 9.7 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Blessington
No special school is in or near Blessington. 2 of the 5 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.
Blessington beside the 98 other Irish towns of 3,900 to 7,600 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perrystown | 7,581 | 94 | 30,259 | 5 | 37% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ferrybank | 5,766 | 32 | 12,081 | 2 | 38% | 0.6 km |
| Carrick-on-Suir | 5,752 | 8 | 2,088 | 1 | 63% | 0.6 km |
| Carrickmacross | 5,745 | 6 | 2,352 | 1 | 17% | 0.2 km |
| Portobello | 5,732 | 110 | 29,104 | 7 | 46% | 0.4 km |
| Blessington | 5,611 | 6 | 1,711 | 1 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Knocknaheeny | 5,592 | 59 | 18,265 | 5 | 59% | 0.5 km |
| Carrigtwohill | 5,568 | 6 | 2,782 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Inishkenny | 5,552 | 43 | 16,164 | 4 | 35% | 1.4 km |
| Roscrea | 5,542 | 8 | 1,763 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
| … | ||||||
| Castleblayney | 3,926 | 9 | 2,076 | 1 | 44% | 0.5 km |
More pupils attend the schools around 89 of the other 98 towns than around Blessington. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 84 of the 99.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around Blessington
Each September’s pupils at every school in or within 3 km of the town, counted where the school stands today.
The schools in and around Blessington had 1,428 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,711 in 2025/26. Blessington Educate Together NS grew most: +79% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Blessington
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 Blessington
For each nearby town, its schools in or within 3 km of its outline, with straight-line distances.
Saggart has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 3. Since 2019/20 the pupils around Blessington changed by +8%; among its neighbours, Rathcoole’s grew most (+23%) and Naas’s least (+7%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Blessington 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 Blessington
How many schools are there in Blessington?
In Blessington or within 3 km of it: 5 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,711 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Blessington that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: Gaelscoil na Lochanna teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near Blessington?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Blessington?
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 Blessington?
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).