What is Scoil Scout?
Finding the right school in Ireland means piecing together information from half a dozen government websites. Scoil Scout does that piecing for you: every primary, post-primary, and special school in the state, in one searchable, filterable interface.
Where the data comes from
- Department of Education — official school register, enrolment by level, teacher counts, DEIS status, Gaelscoil and fee-paying flags. (data.gov.ie)
- NCSE Open Data — per-school SNA (Special Needs Assistant) posts, SET teaching hours, and special class allocations. (opendata.ncse.ie)
- gov.ie inspection reports — dates, types, and links to published Whole School Evaluations and subject inspections. (gov.ie/school-reports)
All data is reused under the Open Government Licence / CC BY 4.0. Updated at least annually; inspection data is rolling.
Report incorrect data
We reflect the government's published data as faithfully as we can, but errors happen. If something looks wrong for a specific school, the authoritative source is the Department of Education's publication — contact the Department to have the official record corrected, and we'll pick up the change at the next refresh.
Privacy
Scoil Scout collects no personal data. There are no accounts, no cookies for tracking, no third-party analytics. We never display information about individual students — only aggregate school-level statistics that schools are required to publish.
Your shortlist and saved searches
When you star a school or save a search, that information is stored only in your browser's local storage. It never leaves your device, is never sent to our server, and is not shared with anyone. Clearing your browser data removes it. If you use Scoil Scout on another device, you'll need to star your schools again there.
Not affiliated
Scoil Scout is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, operated by, or endorsed by the Department of Education, the NCSE, Tusla, any patron body, or any individual school.
Translations
Scoil Scout's interface is offered in sixteen languages. All non-English translations are generated with AI assistance and have not been reviewed by a professional translator, so phrasing may be imperfect or occasionally wrong. The English text is the authoritative version.