Photo: Eeno11 · CC BY 3.0Few schools around Dunlavin teach through Irish: 0%, below Co. Wicklow’s towns and Irish towns
Measured that way, Dunlavin is below both Co. Wicklow’s towns (9%) and Irish towns (8%). St Kevin's Community College, with 829 pupils, is the only secondary school within 3 km. Nothing here grades or ranks these schools: Ireland publishes no results school by school, and the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them.
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 Dunlavin’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
The fastest-growing school here is St Kevin's Community College: 629 pupils in 2019/20, 829 now. Getting a place ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Pupil numbers around Dunlavin
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 Dunlavin had 890 pupils in 2015/16 and 1,103 in 2025/26. St Kevin's Community College grew most: +32% since 2019/20.
Pupils at schools in and around Dunlavin
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.
The 3 schools in and around Dunlavin
Here are the schools in Dunlavin or within 3 km of it, every one with its own page. No letters, no results: Irish schools aren’t ranked one by one.
Where the 3 schools in and around Dunlavin 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 Dunlavin’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 Dunlavin
How many schools teach through each language; the tick marks Ireland’s share.
None of the 3 schools in and around Dunlavin teaches every subject through Irish.
Who Dunlavin’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 Dunlavin | Co. Wicklow | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 75% | 23% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Girls | 48% | 49% | 49% |
More of the pupils around Dunlavin are at DEIS schools than across Ireland: 75% against 27% (Co. Wicklow: 23%). Set beside Ireland, pupils at all-Irish schools stand out most: 0% against 6%. The largest DEIS school here is St Kevin's Community College, with 829 pupils.
Each of the 3 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Kevin's Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | 829 | 48% | ✓ | |
| S N Nicolais NaofaPrimary | 250 | 46% | ||
| Jonathan Swift N.S.Primary | 24 | 71% |
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 Dunlavin’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
1 of Dunlavin’s 3 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Kildare & Wicklow ETB (1), Archbishop of Dublin (1) and Archbishop of Dublin & Bishop of Glendalough COI (1). 1 of the 3 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 Dunlavin’s schools
The patron owns the school and sets its ethos; a board of management runs it day to day.
The schools around Dunlavin answer to 3 patrons, and Kildare & Wicklow ETB leads with 1 of the 3 schools and 75% of their pupils. The local Education and Training Board runs one.
| Patron | Ethos | Schools | Pupils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kildare & Wicklow ETBSt Kevin's | Multi-denominational | 1 | 829 |
| Archbishop of DublinS N Nicolais Naofa | Catholic | 1 | 250 |
| Archbishop of Dublin & Bishop of Glendalough COIJonathan Swift | Church of Ireland | 1 | 24 |
Department of Education school lists: patron 2024/25, ethos 2025/26.
How children get a place in Dunlavin
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
Between 2019/20 and now, 2 of the 3 grew by 5% or more and 1 shrank as much, while Ireland’s pupil numbers moved +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 Dunlavin’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and 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 3 schools below each link their own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| St Kevin's Community CollegePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
| S N Nicolais NaofaPrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Jonathan Swift 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 Dunlavin
Post-primary schools within 10 km of the town; children move at about twelve, and families apply to each school
2 post-primary schools are within 10 km of Dunlavin: one ETB school and one voluntary secondary school. Every one of them takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Kevin's Community CollegeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 829 | 0.6 km |
| Cross And Passion CollegeVoluntary secondary · Catholic | Girls and boys | – | 843 | 8.4 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
Special schools and classes around Dunlavin
No special school is in or near Dunlavin. 1 of the 2 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.
Dunlavin beside the 118 other Irish towns of 800 to 1,400 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moville | 1,390 | 5 | 1,100 | 1 | 40% | 0.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Buttevant | 1,080 | 2 | 802 | 0 | 100% | 0.6 km |
| Curragh Camp | 1,076 | 8 | 1,733 | 1 | 38% | 1.2 km |
| Milford | 1,076 | 3 | 1,645 | 0 | 67% | 0.5 km |
| Rathvilly | 1,074 | 2 | 248 | 0 | 50% | 6.3 km |
| Dunlavin | 1,074 | 3 | 1,103 | 0 | 33% | 0.6 km |
| Granard | 1,058 | 6 | 1,295 | 0 | 50% | 0.5 km |
| Kilmeage | 1,054 | 2 | 357 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
| Newmarket | 1,052 | 2 | 224 | 0 | 0% | 7.2 km |
| Kilcormac | 1,051 | 3 | 536 | 0 | 33% | 0.7 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballon | 801 | 1 | 239 | 0 | 0% | 7.5 km |
Among the 118 other towns, 22 have more pupils at their schools than Dunlavin does. Within 3 km, 14 of these 119 towns have a school teaching through Irish.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Schools in the towns around Dunlavin
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunlavin | 3 | 1,103 | 0 | 33% | 0.6 km |
| Kilcullen 8.5 km | 3 | 1,524 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Athgarvan 11 km | 16 | 7,083 | 1 | 31% | 3.2 km |
| Curragh Camp 13 km | 8 | 1,733 | 1 | 38% | 1.2 km |
| Baltinglass 14 km | 3 | 912 | 0 | 0% | 0.2 km |
| Newbridge 15 km | 18 | 7,450 | 1 | 33% | 0.4 km |
| Blessington 16 km | 6 | 1,711 | 1 | 0% | 0.2 km |
Athgarvan has the most schools teaching through Irish nearby: 1. The roll around Dunlavin moved +22% since 2019/20; nearby, Blessington grew most (+8%) and Baltinglass least (−1%).
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in Dunlavin 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 Dunlavin
How many schools are there in Dunlavin?
In Dunlavin or within 3 km of it: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school, with 1,103 pupils between them.
Are there schools in Dunlavin that teach through Irish?
None in Dunlavin 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 Dunlavin?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in Dunlavin?
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 Dunlavin?
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).