Koç School


The Koç School is a private coeducational school in Turkey. It was founded by Vehbi Koç, one of Turkey's wealthiest businessmen, and is currently under the umbrella of the Vehbi Koç Foundation. The school comprises a high school, which was established in 1988, and an elementary school, established ten years later, in 1998. The first to pioneer the IB program in Turkey, the school admits its students based on their achievements on the nationwide examination for high schools in Turkey.

General information

Koç School is a high and elementary school fully accredited by the Turkish Ministry of Education, European Council of International Schools, International Baccalaureate Organisation, Independent schools UK, England, Scotland, Wales & NI and international schools worldwide and the National Association for College Admission Counseling. It offers boarding for five or seven days a week for students of classes between 6-12 at its dorms on its campus.

History

Founded in 1988 by the Vehbi Koç Foundation, Koç School has quickly become one of Turkey's most selective and competitive university preparatory schools.
Koç School has started offering the IB Diploma Programme in 1994. With the introduction of the programme, many students started applying to overseas educational institutes with high reputation. Koç students have been accepted into universities such as Princeton, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, MIT, and University of Chicago. Ever since the school established an office dedicated to assisting students gain admission to colleges abroad, the number of students seeking overseas education has constantly increased.
The school's Turkish university entrance success is also considerable: general student achievement is among the top when compared with other similar high schools. In fact in 2000, the top scorer of ÖSS was a Koç School graduate. In the 2006 ÖSS, 19 Koç 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.
;General Directors
;High School Directors
Elementary School Directors
Koç School is located on a campus on the eastern outskirts of Istanbul, near Tuzla, Istanbul.
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:

Academics

Koç School is a bilingual school in Turkish and English but also offers the option of a second language: French, German or Spanish. Students choose between an IB track or a non-IB track at the end of tenth grade. 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.
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 its admission statistics. 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.
Koç School is also successful in national and international high school competitions on Math and Sciences.
The school also provides an international faculty with teachers from Australia, Britain, Brazil, Canada, India, Ireland, Russia, Scotland, The Netherlands, U.S., New Zealand and Turkey teaching Science, languages, arts. Some of the current and former notable faculty include John Freely, writer and professor of Physics at Bogazici University, and Erol Köroğlu, writer and doctor of literature and cultural studies at Sabanci University.

Curriculum

In the first two years of education, a high school 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. 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 two examinations for each course at each semester. Exams are usually held in Common Exam 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 are given by the teachers to students.

Extracurriculars and traditional activities

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.
The school has over 50 clubs. Some of the available extracurricular activities and clubs are:
Koç School is also the first Turkish school to apply the International Award Association programme.
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.
At the end of each academic year, extracurricular awards are given to students according to the feedbacks of the supervisors of clubs.
Sports
The 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.
Publications
The 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 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.
MUN (Model United Nations)
The 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. There are approximately 60 members of the club.
Each year the MUN Club attends at least five 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, Brussels and Paris. MUN Club has been among the most successful clubs in the school with many awards, such as Best Governor, Award of Distinction and Best Delegate in the conferences participated such as by students Bülent Kozlu, Josef Amado, Hale Altan, Özlem Cebeci, Berke Tınaz, Alp Yavuz, Ecesu Bayır, Ege Mihmanlı, Sinan Adlım.
The club also organises a Model United Nations Development Programme conference each year at its campus since 2001. is the first Model United Nations Development Programme conference in the world, whose establishment in 2001 was celebrated by the former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan. Each year MUN Delegates from many schools in Turkey and overseas participate in the conference. Each year more than 650 participants attend to the conference as delegates, chairs, advisors, admins and executive committee members. 2017's conference was the 17th session of MUNDP and the participant number exceeded 800 for the first time.
Student Council
Koç School Student Council is composed of students elected by the student body at the regular elections each year in June. It is composed of 18 students with 6 members from the 12.and 11.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 independent student representative elected from the 12. grade students and a total of 12 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.
Even though it's criticized of its lack of ability to effect school politics 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.

Special events

Festivals, fairs and performances
Although Koç School is a relatively young school, it is promising with its traditions adhered by its student body and alumni. Following are notable traditions and traditional activities in the school.
Koç School's notable alumni include Cengiz Pehlevan, who got the first place in 2000 University Entrance Exam; Murat Eken, actor; Mehmet Özge Özen, writer; C. M. Kosemen, artist and author; Tansa Mermerci, socialite and fashion designer; Berrak Tüzünataç, actress; Berkun Oya, artist and playwright; Ceylan Zigoslu, fashion designer; Mustafa Domanic, columnist; Yigit Kiraz, actor; Lalin Akalan, artist and creator; Emirhan Esenkova, screenwriter and poet; Afsin Yurdakul, anchorwoman and journalist; Ozgur Gungor, the notable New York based sculptor; and Enes Ayaz, who graduated in 2008 and was accepted to Harvard, MIT, Yale with full scholarship and touted as one of the "Future 25" by the Time Magazine.
Koç School Alumni Association offers several activities for the alumni including homecomings, Summer Picnic at campus, Winter Reunion in Istanbul, and Reunions in Boston, New York and London.

Elementary school

The elementary school was founded in 1998. It was established in order to adapt to the change in the Turkish education system. Education is, again, bilingual in English and Turkish across all grades. 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 the 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.