Koç School
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| The Koc School | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey | |
| Information | |
| General Director | Tony Paulus |
| Students | 1140 (Elementary School), 880 (High School) |
| Type | Private, coeducational, bilingual, boarding |
| Campus | suburban (75 ha) |
| Color(s) | Red and white |
| Established | 1988 |
| Homepage | http://www.kocschool.k12.tr |
The Koç School (Turkish: Koç Özel Lisesi ve İlköğretim Okulu) is a private school in Istanbul, Turkey. It was founded by one of Turkey's wealthiest businessmen Vehbi Koç and is currently under the umbrella of Vehbi Koç Foundation. The high school was established in 1988 and the elementary school was established in 1998. Koç High School admits its students based on their achievements on the nationwide examination for high schools in Turkey. Since 1994, the school applies the IB program in the Senior School. The School is considering whether to extend it to the middle and elementary school. It is one of the most selective[1] high schools in Turkey.
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[edit] General information
The Koç School is a high and elementary school, fully accredited by the Turkish Ministry of Education, European Council of International Schools (ECIS), International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO), Independent schools UK, England, Scotland, Wales & NI and international schools worldwide (ISBI) and the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). It offers boarding for five or seven days a week for students of classes between 6-12 at its dorms on its campus.
[edit] History
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Founded in 1988 by the Vehbi Koç Foundation, The Koç School has quickly become one of Turkey's most selective and competitive university preparatory schools. In the Private High Schools Entrance Exam in Turkey, Koç School generally ranks among the top in terms of its entrance score (ranked second in 2006[2]).
The Koç School is the first school in Turkey to offer the IB program; which it had started applying in the senior school in 1994.[3] With the introduction of the IB program, many students started applying for overseas educational institutes with high reputation [4]. Koç students have been accepted into universities such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, and many other prominent educational institutes[5][6][7] and the number of students seeking overseas education increased.
The school's Turkish university entrance success is also considerable[8]: general student achievement is among the top when compared with other similar high schools [9]. In fact in 2000, the top scorer of ÖSS was a Koç School graduate [10]. In the 2006 ÖSS, 19 Koc students were in the top 1000 of over 1.500.000 attendants and many students that applied abroad were accepted to top ten universities in the US.[11].
[edit] Former General Directors and High School Directors
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
General Directors
- John Chalfant (1988-1997)
- John Chandler (1997-2005)
- Tony Paulus (2005-2008)
High School Directors
- Atakan Demirseren (1988-1998)
- Fehmi Özbay (1998-1999)
- Lalegül...(1999-2000)
- Füsun Ersoy (2000-2006)
- İlkin Özyurt (2006-2008)
- Koray Özsaraç (2008-)
[edit] Mission and vision
The Koç School's official website defines the school's mission and vision as follows:
Mission:
Koç School is a Turkish school with a global perspective. Our multi-cultural academic community, innovative methodology, and coherent K-12 bilingual program engage all students in developing their intellectual and human qualities so that they will become confident, ethical leaders and responsible citizens of Turkey and of the world community.
Vision:
The goal of Koç School is to be respected nationally and internationally as a model K-12 school, offering an educational program of the highest academic and ethical standards.
[edit] Campus and facilities
The Koç School is located on a 750 acre campus on the eastern outskirts of Istanbul, near Tuzla.
Many of the school facilities were subject to renovations after the first ten years of the school due to increased demands and population of the school. The important facilities and buildings in the school campus are:
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[edit] High school
[edit] Academics
The Koç School is a bilingual school in Turkish and English but also offers the option of a second language; French or German. Koç School gave its first 4-year high school program graduates in 2006; a year before most of the schools in Turkey. Students choose between IB or a non-IB tracks the last 3 years of high school. The Koç School is also the IB coordinator in Istanbul and prepared the IB Turkish Social Studies Curriculum to be covered in all around the world in IB Schools[12].
Each year, many students of the Koç School prefer to continue their education in overseas universities. The school's Overseas College Guidance Office is strong with successful acceptance rates[13] each year. At the end of each academic year, 1-2 students with a high academic achievement in each subject are awarded according to the feedbacks of teachers and departments.
Koc School is also successful in national[14] and international[15] high school competitions on Math and Sciences that it had participated.
The school also provides a truly international faculty with teachers from Australia, Britain, Brazil, Canada, India, Ireland, Russia,Scotland, U.S., New Zealand and Turkey teaching Science, languages, arts. Some of the current and former notable faculty include John Freely[16], writer and professor of Physics at Bogazici University, and Erol Köroğlu, writer and doctor of literature and cultural studies at Sabanci University.
[edit] Curriculum
In the first two years of education a regular student usually takes the following courses: Turkish Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Arts, Military Science, Physical Education, Religion and Ethics, History, Health, Geography, Geometry, Mathematics, an elective second language course, an elective from a variety of courses like Movie Studies, Advanced Multimedia etc.
In the last two years, Koç School provides a variety of IB and non-IB courses both to those that chose to pursue the program and also those that only want to take the classes, in addition to the curricula and courses determined by Ministry of Education. Among the mandatory and elective courses provided to junior and seniors are: Art History, Biology, Business & Management, Ceramics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Computer Programming, Economics, English, Environmental Systems, French, German, Information Technology in Global Society, Knowledge of Language and Literature, Linguistics, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Photography, Physics, Psychology, Theory of Knowledge, Turkish Social Studies, Turkish Literature, and Visual Arts.
There are usually three examinations (or projects and/or papers to be counted as an exam grade) for each course at each semester. Exams are usually held in Common Exam Week (or for the finals Final Examination Week). Examinations are scheduled by the Dean's office and regular class schedule continues to take place with shorter amount of time for each period. After the exam results are announced several awards (with different categories: Academic Success, Effort, Improvement) are given by the teachers to students.
[edit] Extracurriculars and traditional activities
[edit] Extracurricular activities
It is compulsory for each student to join a student club or a sports activity offered at school. Every student has to pick one of the following activities at the beginning of each semester and has to regularly attend its meetings and activities.
The school has over 50 clubs. Some of the available extracurricular activities and clubs are:
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Koc School is also the first Turkish school to apply International Youth Award Program [17].
Environmental Projects are of the major activities in the school, in fact recycling project of Koc School Students won the First Prize in the International Volvo Adventure 2006 competition[18][19][20].
At the end of each academic year, extracurricular awards are given to students according to the feedbacks of the supervisors of clubs.
[edit] SportsThe school has many facilities for sports. Some of the school sport teams are girls-boys basketball, girls volleyball, badminton, table tennis, athleticism, football, folk dance, skiing, dance, and rhythmic gymnastics. Team members are determined after eliminations at the beginning of the academic year. School teams regularly participate in national tournaments. Each year there are basketball and football tournaments between classes in which each class forms its teams. There are about two matches each week in which boys and girls from different classes compete. The final matches are done at SpringFest. The winner class team is awarded with a cup and each team member with a medal. [edit] PublicationsThe school has a growing number and an increasing quality of publications, among them are literary magazines like Boyut, Fanzin and Mindscapes, a two-week newspaper T.A.W.A, and Philosophy. All publications are open to submissions from the whole student body. Boyut and Fanzin are published by the member students in each journal's clubs with the assistance of the Turkish department. Mindscapes is published with the assistance of the English language department and it is also open to all contributions after an evaluation process carried by the student and teacher editors. TAWA[21] was initially the publication/newsletter of the Student Council and later gained an independent position as the school newspaper in 2003. It is published by a team of student journalists independent from clubs and student organisations. [edit] MUNKoç School MUN Club admits its members on an application basis. Students have to write a convincing statement of purpose and score above average at the exam testing general knowledge of the member applicants. Each year the MUN Club attends at least four MUN conferences in Turkey and around the world. Some of the conferences participated by the Koc School students in the previous years took place in various parts of the world including the Hague, Cairo, Beijing and Paris. MUN Club has been among the most successful clubs in the school with many awards in the conferences participated [22][23]. The club also organises a Model United Nations Development Program conference each year at its campus since 2001. MUNDP.is the first Model United Nations Development Program conference in the world, whose establishment in 2001 was celebrated by the then UN General Secretary Kofi Annan. Each year MUN Delegates from many schools in Turkey and overseas participate in the conference.[24][25]. [edit] Student CouncilKoc School Student Council is composed of students elected by the student body at the regular elections each year in June. It is composed of 10-15 students with 5-8 members from the 12. grade and 2 representatives from each class at school. The Student Council consists of a school president, vice president, social activities coordinator, finance coordinator, sports coordinator, 1 or 2 independent student representatives elected from the 12. grade students and a total of 8 representatives elected from grades 9-11 and preparatory year students. The Council meets regularly each week with a faculty adviser. All major and important decisions of the council are to be approved by the faculty adviser even if the meetings are done without the presence of the adviser. Koc School Student Council is a very popular and a strong entity in school culture. Even though it is criticized of its lack of ability to effect school politics (an example would be the abolishing of Courtyard and building a pyramid instead, which was disliked by many of the students during the time) concerning discipline code, student freedoms etc., it is an active student organization with especially its election campaigns being one of the major events each year. [edit] Special events[edit] Festivals, fairs and performances
[edit] Student contests
[edit] TraditionsAlthough Koc School is a newly established school, it is promising with its traditions adhered by its student body and alumni. Following are notable traditions and traditional activities in the school.
[edit] AlumniKoc School's notable alumni include Cengiz Pehlevan,[28] who got the first place in 2000 University Entrance Exam (OSS); Mehmet Özge Özen, writer; Tansa Mermerci, socialite and fashion designer; Berrak Tüzünataç[29][30], actress; Berkun Oya, artist and playwright; and Ozgur Gungor, the notable New York based sculptor. Koc School Alumni Association offers several activities for the alumni including homecomings, Summer Picnic[31] at campus, Winter Reunion in Istanbul, and Reunions in Boston, New York and London. [edit] Koc School in fiction
[edit] Elementary schoolKoç Elementary School was founded in 1998 and it gave its first graduates in 2002. Koç Elementary School was established in order to adapt to the change in the Turkish education system. Koç Elemantary School also provides bilingual education. Students are taught English language from the earliest years. In Grade 4 and 5 students take extra Science and Maths classes which are taught in English. Starting from the sixth year Science and Math classes are taught in English. Graduates of the elementary school have the right to continue their education at Koç High School after taking an exam to skip the Preparation year. If they score over 55% in this exam, they are automatically enrolled in 9th grade of the high school. If they score below 55%, they have to study 1 year of extensive English preparation. [edit] References and notes
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