Nearly 40% surveyed favour multi-denominational schools in Galway
Just eight of Galway’s 217 primary schools are multi-denominational, as school boards face a November 30 deadline to consider changing patronage.
Nearly four in ten respondents with children attending Galway’s religious-run primary schools would instead prefer a multi-denominational school, according to a Department of Education and Youth survey.
The Primary School Survey put the figure at 38.4% - yet just eight of Galway’s 217 primary schools are multi-denominational, according to Educate Together, which is patron of five of them.
A school’s patron determines its ethos.
“The data from the Primary School Survey has given schools an insight into what their parents want, but it doesn’t tell the full story,” said Edward Platt, schools development officer with Educate Together.
School boards have until November 30 to tell the Department and their current patron whether they want to be considered for the first round of changes. Educate Together is encouraging parents to have their say before boards make that decision.
In the Spiddal–Inverin school planning area, which includes Moycullen, all six primary schools currently have religious patrons.
Among the 539 households that responded to the survey, preferences were almost evenly split: 272 favoured a multi-denominational school, compared with 267 who preferred a denominational one.
In September, the board of Scoil Mhuire in Moycullen invited the wider community to give its views on the school’s Catholic patronage; 145 of the school’s 249 households answered the survey. Of those who responded, 52% preferred a multi-denominational patron.
With a margin of error of 6.8 percentage points, the result was too close to say whether a majority of all households at the school favoured a change.
In Spiddal, 45 households at Scoil Éinne answered the survey, and 42% of them favoured a multi-denominational patron.
Across the planning area, 61% of eligible households took part, including 197 whose children had yet to start school.
The survey also asked Galway parents whose children had yet to start school what they would prefer. Of those who answered, 39.9% favoured a multi-denominational school.
Boards must now decide, after hearing from parents, staff and the wider community, whether to put their school forward for a change of patronage.
The Department expects the first changes to take effect from September 2027.