How to read the feeder school list

The Irish Times 2020 feeder school list, published today, aims to provide parents with a snapshot of information about how many students from each school in the Republic of Ireland go on to various third-level colleges in Ireland. This includes progression data for 26 publicly-funded colleges in the Republic of Ireland, the two Northern Irish universities, Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University, and two independent, fee-paying third-levels, Griffith College and Dublin Business School.

Our list normally includes all schools in the Republic of Ireland where 11 or more pupils sat the Leaving Cert exam. This year, however, the cancellation of the exams and the introduction of calculated grades as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic means the data is based on two sources: information from the Department of Education, which tells us the number of students that registered for calculated grades this year, and lists provided by each of the higher education institutions, which tell us the school of origin of the full-time, first-year undergraduate cohort.

These tables give information on every student who ever attended a particular school and began to study this year and thus includes mature students and deferrals. It is not a picture of the class of 2020 alone.

Caveats and cautions

Each of the colleges on this list records the information in slightly different formats, which means there can be minor discrepancies.

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For instance, many students will change schools during their time in secondary education and some third-level institutions will record every school that the student ever attended. As a result, the progression level of some schools is likely to be over-reported. On the other hand, every year most third-levels are unable to identify the school of origin of a small number of their students which means those schools don’t get a credit.

The lists don’t account for the numbers moving into apprenticeships or further education. At the moment, the State does not centrally collect this data.

Our lists do not provide information on how many students went on to study in the UK or overseas.

Why is my school not on this list?

Some people will look for their local school and find it missing. Why? There are six main reasons:

– The school had fewer than 10 students sitting the Leaving Cert this year and, for data protection reasons, the Department of Education may have withheld information on those schools and their sits.

– The school has amalgamated with other local schools. Where possible – and it usually is – we credit deferred or mature students from a now-closed school to the school into which it has merged.

– The school has closed.

– The school introduced a mandatory transition year in 2018 which means it had no Leaving Cert class this year.

– It is a relatively new school and has not yet had a sixth-year group.

– The school is a "grind school" run without State support. These include Bruce College, the Institute of Education, Hewitt College, Yeats College and some others.

How to read the list

Let’s say, for instance, you want to see how the schools in Co Meath or Dublin 4 have fared.

1: Go to the sections for Co Meath and Dublin 4.

2: Number who sat Leaving Cert 2020: This column tells you the total number of students from each school in that area who registered for calculated grades, based on figures provided by the Department of Education.

3: Total number (all years): This column tells you the total number of students from that school who either registered for calculated grades this year or sat their Leaving Cert in that school in 2020 or previous years (or who repeated the Leaving Cert in another school) and started full-time undergraduate studies in a publicly-funded, third-level institution on the island of Ireland.

4: Total percentage progression (all years): This shows the percentage of students from each school who applied for calculated grades or who sat the Leaving Cert in previous years – and either deferred making a CAO application until 2020 or repeated in another institution – and started full-time undergraduate studies in a publicly-funded, third-level institution on the island of Ireland.

Accuracy and fairness

To ensure the greatest possible degree of accuracy and fairness, The Irish Times uses a standardised system to compile this list. We use this system to help us spot the vast majority of errors and data holes, but there are numerous complicating factors – primarily the fact that our information is only as good as the data we receive – which mean that some schools will occasionally record a lower third-level progression than is accurate.

While our IT systems team can indicate significant deviations from last year, calculated grades, grade inflation, grade adjustments and expanded college places will have a combination of positive and negative effects on different schools that are completely different to the patterns observed over previous years.

Note: The Irish Times will investigate and correct errors that are brought to our attention, but regret that we cannot enter correspondence regarding the manner in which this data is compiled.