Is Your School a Smart School?
Smart Steps partners with primary schools across Donegal to provide structured, fully managed school-age childcare services embedded within the school community
Our Smart School model gives families access to reliable childcare in a familiar setting, while schools benefit from a trusted service designed to reflect their ethos, routines and safeguarding standards.
A Smart School is a partner primary school where Smart Steps delivers school-age childcare as part of the wider school community.
The service is carefully planned around the needs of children, families and the school itself, creating a familiar, supportive environment before school, after school and during school holidays where applicable.
Each service is developed in partnership with school leadership so that it reflects the school’s daily routines, values and standards.
This allows children to benefit from continuity between school and childcare, while parents have access to a dependable local service they can trust.
What is a Smart School?
What Smart Steps Provides
Through our Smart School partnerships, Smart Steps provides:
organised before-school and after-school childcare
link-hour and part-time options where needed
holiday provision where feasible
child-centred daily routines and play opportunities
clear policies, procedures and safeguarding practices
communication with families
day-to-day service management and administration
Our aim is to provide a service that is dependable for families, positive for children and practical for schools.
Why Schools Partner With Us
Our Smart School model is designed to support schools as well as families.
By embedding childcare within the school community, schools can respond to local family need without taking on the burden of managing a standalone service themselves.
Partner schools value the model because it:
Governance and Oversight
We are proud to work in partnership with schools across Donegal, with each service shaped by the individual needs of its local community.
Each Smart School service operates in close partnership with school leadership within a clear governance framework. While Smart Steps manages the day-to-day delivery of the childcare service, we work closely with the school to ensure that the service reflects the school’s ethos, child safeguarding standards and daily routines.
This partnership approach includes:
clear communication with the school
agreed use of school facilities and shared expectations
alignment with relevant school policies and safeguarding procedures
defined operational responsibility for the childcare service
ongoing review to ensure the service continues to meet the needs of children, families and the school community
Our goal is to provide reassurance to schools that the service is structured, accountable and professionally managed.
How the Partnership Works
We work with each school step by step to develop a service that suits its community.
Initial conversation
We discuss the needs of the school and local families.
Planning the service
We agree the structure of provision, space requirements and practical arrangements.
Setting up for launch
Policies, procedures, communication and enrolment systems are put in place.
Ongoing partnership
Once the service begins, we continue to work with the school to review how it is operating and respond to changing needs.
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Our Current Smart Schools
Smart Steps currently partners with a growing number of primary schools across Donegal.
Each partnership is shaped by the individual character of the school and the needs of its families, while maintaining the same commitment to safe, structured and child-centred care.
You can explore our current partner schools to see how the Smart School model works in different communities.
