Holywood Parish Church of Ireland · Photo: Slowtech2000 · CC BY-SA 4.0The schools around Holywood get better GCSE results than 65% of Northern Ireland towns
2 post-primary schools are in Holywood itself; the School Grade uses the 42 grammar and non-grammar schools in or within 10 km of the town, since children here travel, most of all to grammar schools. Holywood grades B for schools against Northern Ireland’s towns, #4 of 6 in Ards and North Down.
Figures for the area are pupil-weighted across the schools the grade uses; Northern Ireland’s are the average school.
What stands out about Holywood’s schools
Grammar and non-grammar schools
Holywood’s grammar school, Sullivan Upper School, teaches 1,078 of its 1,790 post-primary pupils. Their GCSE results average 99% with 5+ A*–C including English and maths; the town’s other school gets 60%, against Northern Ireland’s non-grammar average of 60%. Every school ↓
More mixed than most; one integrated school
1 of Holywood’s 5 mainstream schools are mostly one community, at least 90% Catholic or under 10% (across Northern Ireland, 74% of schools). Priory Integrated College teaches pupils from both communities together. St Patrick's PS, Sullivan Upper Preparatory and Sullivan Upper School also have a mix, with 10% to 90% Catholic pupils. Every school’s mix ↓
Sixth forms everywhere
Both post-primary schools teach to 18. The biggest sixth forms are Sullivan Upper School (302) and Priory Integrated (59), pupils in Years 13 and 14. After 16 ↓
Some schools are full
171 places are free across Holywood’s schools this year. The fullest are Sullivan Upper School (100%) and Priory Integrated (99%). How full ↓
Special needs
16% of pupils in Holywood’s mainstream schools are on the special educational needs register, against 19% across Northern Ireland. Special needs ↓
Written from the Department of Education’s school census and exam results on this page.
Holywood grades B for schools
Against Northern Ireland’s towns only: Northern Ireland sets its own exams and selects at 11, so its schools are never ranked against England’s.
Northern Ireland chooses at 11. Most grammar schools admit on a transfer test, and their results show it: on average 94% of their pupils get five good GCSEs including English and maths, against 60% at other schools. A grammar school’s pupils also come from well beyond its own town, so grading only the schools inside a boundary would reward a town simply for hosting one.
So Holywood’s grade takes the schools its children can reach: every post-primary school in the town or within 10 km of it, grammar and non-grammar together, each counted by its Year 12 pupils. For Holywood that is the town’s own 2 and 40 more within 10 km. The result is ranked against Northern Ireland’s towns only, never England’s, because Northern Ireland sets its own exams. Primary schools don’t count: Northern Ireland publishes no primary results.
Each dot’s colour is the school’s letter against its own kind, grammar or non-grammar, so a grammar school can sit high on the scale and still not be green.
Where Holywood’s 6 schools are
Each school where OpenStreetMap places it (or, for a school not mapped there, in its Census data zone), coloured by how it is run and sized by pupils. Squares are post-primary schools, triangles special and nursery schools. The dashed shape is Holywood’s settlement boundary.
The 6 schools in Holywood
Holywood has 6 schools inside its settlement boundary, from the Department of Education’s school census. A post-primary school’s letter compares it with its own kind, grammar schools with grammars and the others with non-grammar schools, on 2024/25 GCSEs. Primary schools have no letter: Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. Each school’s page has its pupils, results, religious mix and special needs.
Show all 40 also in the grade
The mix of pupils in Holywood’s schools
Pupils by religion at each mainstream school, October 2025.
Most of Northern Ireland’s children go to a school mostly of their own community: controlled schools are mostly Protestant, Catholic maintained schools mostly Catholic. Integrated schools set out to teach both together. In Holywood, 1 of 5 mainstream schools are at least 90% Catholic or under 10% Catholic. The census records each pupil’s religion as given by their family; “other” includes no religion.
Department of Education, school enrolment, school level data 2025/26: pupils by religion. DE leaves out a group under 5 pupils; where only one group is left out, it is the remainder.
Room in Holywood’s schools
Places taken as a share of each school’s approved enrolment, 2025/26. The black tick is 100%.
Department of Education, available places 2025/26: a school’s approved enrolment is the number of pupils it is allowed; places free are what DE counts as left.
Where Holywood’s teenagers go at 16
Both of Holywood’s post-primary schools teach to 18. Grammar-school sixth forms are fuller, since nearly all their pupils stay on; at other schools many move to college, training or work at 16. Year 13 against Year 12 is a guide to staying on, not a count of who stayed: they are different year groups, and a figure over 100 means pupils join at 16.
Sixth-form pupils
Years 13 and 14, October 2025
Staying on
Year 13 pupils for every 100 in Year 12
Department of Education, school enrolment 2025/26, pupils by year group.
Special educational needs in Holywood’s schools
On the special educational needs register: 16% of the pupils at Holywood’s mainstream schools (Northern Ireland: 19%). Most are supported by their school (stages 1 and 2 of the Code of Practice); 170 have a statement, the third stage, which the Education Authority writes after an assessment and which can name a school.
Priory Integrated has a learning support centre, a specialist class inside a mainstream school.
The bars show each school’s share on the register; the black tick is Northern Ireland’s average for the phase (primary 20%, post-primary 17%).
Department of Education, school enrolment, school level data 2025/26: SEN (Code of Practice stages 1 to 3) and specialist provision in mainstream.
How children get a place in Holywood
Starting primary school
Children who are 4 by 1 July start Primary 1 that September. Families apply to the Education Authority in the January before, listing schools in order of preference. A school with more applicants than places admits on its published criteria, often brothers and sisters, the parish or a feeder nursery, and where the family lives. Holywood’s primary schools have 165 places free between them; the tightest is St Patrick's PS, with 30 of 316.
Moving up at 11
Families apply for a post-primary place in Primary 7, again through the Education Authority. Holywood’s grammar school admits mostly on the transfer test, which children can choose to sit in Primary 7. Places free this year: Sullivan Upper School 1. Holywood’s other post-primary school doesn’t use the test and admit on its own criteria, such as brothers and sisters and feeder primary schools. Places free: Priory Integrated 5.
Education Authority admissions · each school’s criteria are on its own website.
Pupil numbers at schools in Holywood
The same schools in each census, 2016/17 to 2025/26.
Primary pupil numbers fell from 941 in 2016/17 to 859 in 2025/26. Post-primary pupil numbers rose from 1,679 in 2016/17 to 1,790 in 2025/26.
Department of Education school censuses. Primary totals include nursery classes; totals include specialist provision where DE includes it.
6th of 12 Northern Irish towns of 8,000 to 15,000
Ranked by School Grade, best first: the towns either side of Holywood, and the top and bottom of the group.
| # | Town | Schools | 5+ GCSEs incl. E&M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magherafelt Mid Ulster | A | 82% |
| 2 | Warrenpoint and Burren Newry, Mourne and Down | A | 81% |
| 3 | Comber Ards and North Down | A | 81% |
| 4 | Enniskillen Fermanagh and Omagh | A− | 79% |
| 5 | Cookstown Mid Ulster | B+ | 78% |
| 6 | Holywood Ards and North Down | B | 77% |
| 7 | Downpatrick Newry, Mourne and Down | B | 75% |
| 8 | Ballymoney Causeway Coast and Glens | C | 73% |
| 9 | Ballyclare Antrim and Newtownabbey | C− | 68% |
| 10 | Newcastle Newry, Mourne and Down | D | 65% |
| … | |||
| 12 | Strabane Derry City and Strabane | D− | 64% |
Holywood and the places around it
Coloured by School Grade.
| Town | Schools | 5+ GCSEs incl. E&M |
|---|---|---|
| Holywood 6 schools | B | 77% |
| Greenisland area schools · 4.4 mi | C | 71% |
| Metropolitan Castlereagh area schools · 4.5 mi | B+ | 77% |
| Metropolitan Newtownabbey area schools · 5.1 mi | B− | 75% |
| Belfast area schools · 5.4 mi | B | 76% |
| Carrickfergus area schools · 6.2 mi | D | 67% |
| Newtownards area schools · 6.5 mi | B+ | 78% |
| Bangor area schools · 6.7 mi | C | 72% |
Newtownards has the best-graded schools nearby (B+). Neighbouring towns can share area schools.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- A* to C, not 9 to 1. The GCSE figure is Northern Ireland’s headline measure: the share of Year 12 pupils, aged 15 to 16, with five or more GCSEs at A* to C including English and maths. Northern Ireland grades GCSEs A* to G, not England’s 9 to 1, so its figures don’t compare with English schools’, and the School Grade ranks a town only against Northern Ireland’s 63 towns. A Northern Ireland B and an English B both mean “better than most towns at home”, not the same exam results.
- A-levels shown, not graded. A-level results are shown on each school’s page but not graded. Only pupils who stay on are counted, and under selection those are mostly at grammar schools, so the A-level figure says more about which schools have big sixth forms than about the town.
- Pupil numbers over time. The trend follows the same schools with published enrolments in all ten years. Historic references and postcodes are matched to schools located in the town today; closed schools without a reliable location, new schools and missing counts are excluded. It describes pupils attending those schools, not children living in the town. Primary counts include nursery classes. DE separated specialist provision in mainstream classes in later workbooks; combined totals are used where published.
Questions about schools in Holywood
Are schools in Holywood good?
The schools around Holywood earn a B against Northern Ireland’s towns: 77% of their Year 12 pupils got 5 or more GCSEs at A* to C including English and maths in 2024/25, against 72% at the average Northern Ireland school. The grade weights each school by its pupils and takes grammar and non-grammar schools together.
How many schools are in Holywood?
Holywood has 3 primary schools, 2 post-primary schools and 1 nursery school, with 2,727 pupils in October 2025. 42 graded post-primary schools are in or within 10 km of it. Northern Ireland publishes no primary results, so primary schools are listed but not graded.
Are there grammar schools near Holywood?
Yes: Sullivan Upper School, Holywood (in town), Strathearn School, Belfast (2.5 km), Campbell College, Belfast (2.7 km) and Bloomfield Collegiate School, Belfast (3.5 km). Most admit pupils on a transfer test taken in Primary 7.
How do I get a school place in Holywood?
Through the Education Authority, in Primary 7. Most grammar schools select on the transfer test; other schools use their published criteria, such as siblings, feeder primaries and where you live.
Sources: Department of Education examination performance at post-primary schools 2024/25 and school-level enrolment data 2025/26 · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.