The Koç School () is a private coeducational school in İstanbul, Turkey, founded by Vehbi Koç, one of Turkey's wealthiest businessmen. The school comprises a high school that pioneered the IB program in Turkey and an elementary school. Prospective students gain admission into the high school 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 (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 high school prep to 12th grade at its dorms on its campus.
History
Founded in 1988 by Vehbi Koç Foundation, Koç School has quickly become one of Turkey's most selective and competitive university preparatory schools.
Koç School started offering the IB Diploma Programme in 1994. With the introduction of the programme, many students began to apply to overseas educational institutes with high reputation. Koç students have been accepted into universities such as Princeton, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Cornell, Yale, Columbia, Georgetown, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Dartmouth, MIT, the London School of Economics, and University of Chicago. With a guidance office committed to assisting students in gaining admission to colleges abroad, the number of Koç 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 the national university entrance examination was a Koç School alumna. In the 2006 national examination, 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
John Chalfant (1988–1992) Gerald Shields (1992–1996) John Chandler (1996–2005) Tony Paulus (2005–2008) Robert Lennox (2008–2013) Koray Özsaraç (2013–2018) Murat Günel (2018–2025) Güray Erkol (2025-)
High School Directors
Atakan Demirseren (1988–1998) Fehmi Özbay (1998–1999) Lalegül Hanım (1999–2000) Füsun Ersoy (2000–2006) İlkin Özyurt (2006–2008) Koray Özsaraç (2008–2013) Selen Aydınoğlu (2013–2019) Elif Kara Özturk (2019–) Primary School Directors
Mesrure Tekay (1998–2013) Handan Sungur (2013–2019) Demet Gören Niron (2019–) Middle School Directors Tümay Dovan (2013–2019) Meltem Önal Sertkaya (2019–)
Campus and facilities
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 on the school campus are:
High School building: It was opened for the 2022–2023 school year after renovation between 2021 and 2022. Suna Kıraç Library: It was moved to a separate and larger building adjacent to high school building in 2002. It was demolished in order to make space for the renovations that took place between 2021 and 2022. It opened to students at its new location in 2023. Piramit & (Sevgi Gönül Student Center): It is a student center and lounge. It was constructed in 2002 and replaced the courtyard. Atakan Demirseren Hall: It is an auditorium with nearly 900 people capacity (renovated in 2008 and opened with the annual Talent Show), Open track and field area Tennis Courts Sports Center Pools Football Pitch
Science Building: It was built in 2013. Entry floor is reserved for physics, first floor for biology, second floor for chemistry while the basement is used for computer science. Dorms used to be located in the main school building. They were built as separate buildings due to increased population of the school in 2005. Faculty Housing for the teachers and staff. Fitness Center Art Studios including ceramics, photography, printmaking. Elementary school building: Classes, teacher offices, library, auditorium, sports center and cafeteria. Kindergarten: It is made up of 4 classes and attached to the Elementary school building.
High school
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 Koç students prefer to continue their education at overseas universities. The school's Overseas College Guidance Office is strong with its admission statistics. At the end of the academic year, each department gives awards to a select number of students with high academic standing after taking into account the feedback submitted by teachers.
Koç School is also successful in national and international high school competitions in mathematics 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 Boğaziçi University, and Erol Köroğlu, writer and doctor of literature and cultural studies at Sabancı 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 (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.
Extracurriculars and traditional activities
Extracurricular activities
It is compulsory in both elementary and high school 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:
SEMEP (South East Mediterranean Environmental Project) Model United Nations Club Invisible Children European Youth Parliament Club Debate Club Ceramics Club Chess Club Jewellery Design Club Librarianship Club Social Assistance and Solidarity Club Amnesty International Club Literature ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association) World Scholar's Cup
Voluntary social work projects Wikipedia Club History Club Philosophy Club Atatürk's Thinking and Principles Club Athleticism Club American Football Club Football Club Baseball Softball German Language The Global Friendship Project Chorus Tennis Club
Volleyball Club Atatürk Club Badminton Basketball Club Table Tennis Club Science Club Model Aircraft Making Club Drama Club Computing Club Rugby Club Fantasy Role Playing Journal Clubs (Mindscapes, Fanzin and Boyut) Lean in Club
Music Club Visual Arts Club Folk Dance Club Modern Dance Club Camping Club Cooking Environment Skiing & Snowboard Robotics Sustainable Life Club Film Club
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 Koç School Students won the First Prize in the International Volvo Adventure 2006 competition.
11th grade students won the NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest in 2018 and 9th grade group won second prize in 2019.
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 Koç 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 Harvard Model Congress Europe