Parent's Review of TED Izmir in Urla, Izmir, Turkey

What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)

TED Izmir

In what town or city is this school located?

Urla, Izmir

How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)

Local

What grade levels are represented at this school?

K-7

How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)

The school provides service buses, however, there seem to be MANY problems with buses being late, drivers constantly changing & a lack of communication between drivers/school/parents. When parents pay 3,000tl per child to use a bus service, you would expect them to be more organized. For this reason, families who live closer to the school usually choose to drop off/pick up their own children.

How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?

The school building itself is beautiful. It is large, colorful, has things such as a recording studio & indoor swimming pool (although the pool is a bit sub-par in my opinion). Extra-curricular activities are offered such as Destination Imagination and various sports teams.

What has this school done to help your child transition from the curriculum in your home country into the curriculum in your new country? Are there programs to prepare your child for repatriation?

The school doesn't do anything to help students transition. Luckily for them, most of the 'foreign' students at the school are half-Turkish, or have been in Turkey long enough that their Turkish is pretty good. If a student doesn't know Turkish, however, they would have a very difficult time considering there are only 10 hours a week of English lessons, and none of the other teachers in the school know English (including the principal, vice principals, doctor, counselor, etc.).

How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?

While the school certainly puts on a show of holding meetings & listening to parents' concerns, everything they do seems to be reactive rather than preventive. Also, these meetings are held in Turkish. You are on your own to understand things if you don't know Turkish.

What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?

Although TED Izmir might appear to have the potential to provide a good education to your child, don't do it. They are still too new, & most of what they claim to do is just theory, not reality. When they eventually add a high school, they plan to implement the IGCSE program, but they don't seem to have any forward planning going on at this point. Whenever asked about future plans or current issues, the answer always seems to be, "you have to understand that we are a new school." It's also worth noting that the school seems to have a very difficult time keeping its native speaker teachers. I heard that none of their native speaker teachers returned after the first year, and quite a few that were hired for the 2nd year left within the first few weeks of school starting. The quality of the students at the school also varies greatly. While there are some very bright students who have transferred from other good schools, many of the students come from wealthy families, are quite spoiled, and have little to no discipline. This makes classes chaotic, and sends the message that it's okay to disrespect authority figures. Despite the fact that the school costs about 20,000tl for tuition alone, plus another couple thousand for uniforms, books, the school service, etc., it seems to be a typical Turkish education that could be obtained elsewhere for less. I would not consider this a real option for an "international school".

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