Istanbul International School in Uskudar District

Istanbul International School:
Istanbul International School is the only school in Turkey where a national and international programme are provided under the same roof with the deliberate intention of creating settings in which children meet each other as equals and share learning experiences together. In the programme two distinct curricula operate – one national, representing the Turkish school programme regulated by the National Board of Education. The other is an international curriculum which is British based but suitably flexible to incorporate an eclectic approach to education and choice of materials. Though the two programmes have distinct national features to meet the needs of Turkish or foreign students, they identify themselves as members of the Istanbul International School learning community. Assemblies are conducted jointly, club activities are mixed as are as much as possible Music, PE and Art lessons. Turkish children learn English and foreign children are taught Turkish.

Pre School:

TYPICAL DAY
Our programme is designed to encourage a balance of child initiated and teacher facilitated activities. The programme offers children a variety of choices. The environment includes art, dramatic play, maths, language work, enjoying books, art, music, water and sand play, science activities, and so on. Our goals include the encouragement of each child’s natural curiosity and interest in learning.


A DAY IN PRE-SCHOOL for 2 year-olds

09:00-09:30   Arrival – Greetings – Free play
09:30-09:40 Tidy up time - Getting ready for the morning
snack - Bathroom
09:40-10:00 Morning snack
10:00-10:30 Circle time
10:30-11:00 Group games / Drama / Outdoors play
11:00-11:30  Arts & crafts
11:30-11:50 Story time / Table activities
11:50-12:00 Tidy up time – Getting ready for lunch – Bathroom
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-12:40 Cleaning up – Bathroom – Preparation for departure –
                    Greetings – Departure for Half Day Students
12:40-12:50 Quiet time / Table activities
12:50-13:00 Getting ready for nap time
13:00-14:15 Nap time
14:15-14:30 Waking up - Getting ready for the afternoon
snack – Bathroom
14:30-14:50 Afternoon snack
14:50-15:00 Cleaning up – Bathroom
15:00-15:20 Circle time & Self-Assessment
15:20-15:40 Group games / Drama / Outdoors play
15:40-15:50 Story time
15:50-16:00  Preparation for departure - Greetings – Departure


A DAY IN PRE-SCHOOL for 3 year-olds

08:35-09:20 Arrival – Greetings – Free play
09:20-09:30 Tidy up time - Getting ready for the morning
snack - Bathroom
09:30-09:50 Morning snack
09:50-10:00  Cleaning up - Bathroom
10:00-10:20   Circle time
10:20-10:40 Learning Centres
10:40-11:00 Arts & crafts / Maths / Science /
Pre-reading & pre-writing activities
11:00-11:30 Outdoors play / Group games / Drama
11:30-11:50 Table Activities / Story time
11:50-12:00 Tidy up time – Getting ready for lunch – Bathroom
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-12:40 Cleaning up - Bathroom
12:40-12:50 Quiet time / Table activities
12:50-13:00 Getting ready for nap time
13:00-14:15 Nap time
14:15-14:30 Waking up - Getting ready for the afternoon
snack – Bathroom
14:30-14:50 Afternoon snack
14:50-15:00 Cleaning up – Bathroom
15:00-15:20 Circle time & Self-Assessment
15:20-15:40 Story time
15:40-15:50 Group games / Drama / Outdoors play
15:50-16:00  Preparation for departure - Greetings – Departure

A DAY IN PRE-SCHOOL for 4 year-olds
08:35-09:20     Arrival – Greetings – Free play
09:20-09:30     Tidy up time - Getting ready for the morning snack
                    Bathroom
09:30-09:50 Morning snack
09:50-10:00  Cleaning up - Bathroom
10:00-10:20   Circle time
10:20-10:50 Group games / Drama
10:50-11:30 Arts & crafts / Maths / Science /
Pre-reading & pre-writing activities
11:30-12:00 Outdoors play / Group Games / Drama
                             Learning centres in the classroom
12:00-12:10 Tidy up time – Getting ready for lunch – Bathroom
12:10-12:30     Lunch
12:30-12:40 Cleaning up - Bathroom
12:40-13:10 Quiet time / Table activities / Story time
13:10-13:30  Free Play Time
13:30-14:00  Arts & crafts / Maths / Science /
  Pre-reading & pre-writing activities
14:00-14:30 Outdoors play / Group Games / Drama
                             Learning centres in the classroom
14:30-14:40 Getting ready for the afternoon snack – Bathroom
14:40-15:00 Afternoon snack


15:00-15:10 Cleaning up – Bathroom
15:10-15:40 Circle time & Self-Assessment
15:40-15:50 Group games
15:50-16:00 Preparation for departure - Greetings - Departure 

A DAY IN PRE-SCHOOL for 5 year-olds


08:35-09:30 Arrival – Greetings – Free Play
09:30-10.00  Circle time
10:00-10:30 Morning snack
10:30-11:30 Arts & crafts / Maths / Science /
  Pre-reading & pre-writing activities
11:30-12:00 Group games / Drama / Outdoors play
12:00-12:30 Quiet time / Table activities / Story time /
Learning centres in the classroom
12:30-12:40 Tidy up time – Getting ready for lunch –
Bathroom
12:40-13:10 Lunch
13:10-13:20 Cleaning up - Bathroom
13:20-13:50 Table activities / Story time
13:50-14:30      Arts & crafts / Maths / Science / Pre-reading
  & pre-writing activities
14:30-15:00 Outdoors play / Group games / Drama
15:00-15:10 Getting ready for the afternoon snack –
Bathroom
15:10-15:30 Afternoon snack
15:30-15:40 Cleaning up – Bathroom
15:40-15:50 Circle time / Self-Assessment
15:50-16:00 Preparation for departure - Greetings –  Departure

Primary School:
Scope and Sequence

Our school’s programme is built around the need to provide knowledge skills and understanding arranged by subject under three areas of study.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 

Providing an understanding of the following areas which influence our thinking
● SCIENCE
● HISTORY
● GEOGRAPHY
● CULTURAL STUDIES

LIFE SKILLS

Providing an understanding of the skills needed for life
● ENGLISH
● MFL (Modern Foreign Languages) / Spanish, Turkish.
● MATHS
● PSHE(Personal Social Health Education)
● ICT(INFORMATION +COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY)

EXPRESSIVE ARTS 

Providing an understanding of how we can express ourselves
● VISUAL ARTS
● MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
● PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Environmental Studies

Science
Children learn about a wide range of living things, materials and phenomena. They begin to make links between ideas and to explain things using simple models and theories. They apply their knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas to familiar phenomena, everyday things and their personal health. They begin to think about the positive and negative effects of scientific and technological developments on the environment and in other contexts. They carry out more systematic investigations working on their own and with others. They use an increasing range of reference sources in their work. In time they talk about their own work and its significance , and communicate ideas using a wide range of scientific language, conventional diagrams, charts and graphs.
● History
Children learn about significant people , events and places from the recent and more distant past. They learn about changes and continuity in the immediate area and in other parts of the world. They look at history and in a variety of ways, from political , economic, technological, and scientific, social, religious cultural or aesthetic perspectives. They use different sources of information to help them investigate the past both in depth and in overview using dates and historical vocabulary and developments. They also learn that the past can be represented and interpreted in different ways.
● Geography
Children investigate a variety of people and environments at different scales in the immediate environment and in different parts of the world. They find out how people affect the environment and how they are affected by it. They carry out geographical inquiry inside and outside the classroom. In doing so they ask geographical questions and use geographical skills and resources such as maps, atlases, aerial photographs.
● Technology
With age muscles and brain develop and in the technical area opportunities are given to a variety of crafts and technical projects. Time is also given to the use and application of the computer.

Expressive Arts

● Art and Design
With time children begin to work more independently or as part of a team on a range of designing and making activities. They think about what products are used for and the needs of the people who use them. They explore colour , material and environment and a variety of methods of expressing in different modes of art.
● Music
Children sing songs and play instruments with increasing confidence , skill, expression and awareness of their own contribution to a group or class performance. They improvise and develop their own musical composition , in response to a variety of different stimuli with increasing personal involvement, independence and creativity. They explore their thoughts and feelings, through responding physically, intellectually and emotionally to a variety of music from different times and cultures.
● Physical Education
Children enjoy being active and using creativity and imagination in physical activity . They learn new skills, find out how to use them to make actions, phrases and sequences of movement . They enjoy communicating , collaborating and competing with each other. They develop an understanding of how to succeed in different activities and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.

Life Skills

● English
Children learn to adjust the way they speak and write to suit different situations, purposes and audiences. They read a wide range of texts and respond to different layers of meaning in them. They explore the use of language in literary and non-literary texts and learn how language works.
● Maths
As time passes children use the number system with increasing confidence. They move from counting reliably to calculating fluently with all four number operations. They try to tackle a problem with mental methods before using any other approach. 
They explore features of space and shape and develop their measuring skills in a range of contexts. They discuss and present their methods and reasoning using a wide range of contexts. They discuss and present their methods and reasoning using an increasingly wide range of mathematical language, diagrams and charts.
● Foreign languages 
Children develop communication and literacy skills that lay the foundation for future language learning. They develop linguistic competence, extend their knowledge of how language works and explore differences and similarities between foreign languages and their mother language/s. 
Learning another language raises awareness of the multilingual and multicultural world and introduces an international dimension to children’s learning. The school currently offers Turkish and Spanish as foreign languages.
● Personal Development 
Children learn about themselves as growing and changing individuals with their own experiences a growing and changing individuals with their own experiences and ideas , and as members of their communities within it. They develop their sense of social justice and moral responsibility and begin to understand that their choices and behaviour can affect local, national or global issues and political and social institutions. They learn to take more active part in their school and community activities .With time they will face puberty and transfer to secondary school. They learn how to make more confident and informed choices about their health and environment; to take more responsibility, individually and as a group for their own learning; and to resist bullying.

Middle School:

Scope and Sequence

Our school’s educational programme is built around the need to provide knowledge skills and understanding arranged by subject under three areas of study. In the Middle School a wide range of subjects is taught as identifiable subject areas but there is also the continuation of the notion of personal and group inquiry in more depth. Exams are now more a focus of the programme – school exams, external national exams and international exams.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Providing an understanding of the following areas which influence our thinking
● SCIENCE
● HISTORY
● GEOGRAPHY
● GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

LIFE SKILLS

Providing an understanding of the skills needed for life
● ENGLISH
● MFL (Modern Foreign Languages) / Spanish, Turkish.
● MATHS
● PSHE (Personal Social Health Education)
● ICT(INFORMATION +COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY)

EXPRESSIVE ARTS

Providing an understanding of how we can express ourselves
● VISUAL ARTS
● MUSIC
● PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Environmental Studies
● Science
Students will be taught about the skills upon which scientific enquiry depends ( how to plan and experiment ' to gather and record evidence' and to think critically about the findings that emerge), life processes and living things, materials and their properties and physical processes. They will use scientific ideas and models to explain phenomena and events' and to understand a range of familiar applications of science. They will learn how scientists gather evidence to support their ideas and be encouraged to reflect upon the positive and negative effects of scientific and technological developments on the environment.
● History
The history programme of study is ambitious. Students are expected to learn about significant individuals and events from early history through to the 21st century as well as key aspects of World History. They also make connections between events in history and changes in the different periods and area studied by comparing the structure of societies and economic' cultural and political developments.
● Geography
Like History this is an ambitious programme of study. Students are expected to investigate a wide range of people, places and environments around the world. They learn about geographical patterns and processes and how political' economic' social and environmental factors affect geographical issues. They carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom and are expected to identify geographical questions ' collect and analyse written and statistical evidence and develop their own opinions.
● Technology
There will be an increasing expectation of students to be innovators' discriminating and informed users of technology. In the use of the computer students will be introduced to and taught to apply more sophisticated software to become totally computer literate.

Expressive Arts
● Art and Design
The programme is intended to develop students creativity and imagination by improving their practical and critical skills and the knowledge and experience of materials ' processes and practices learned so far.
● Music
Students are given the opportunity to deepen and extend their own musical interests and skills . An increasing understanding of musical devices ' processes and contextual influences is to become evident. Music from different times and cultures will be introduced and students will have to think critically about the nature and quality of what they hear.
● Physical Education
This programme is intended to make students more “expert” in the skills and techniques they have learned in primary school. Alongside games and sports, health education and leadership skills are developed.

Life Skills
● English
The curriculum focuses on speaking fluently and appropriately in different contexts including more formal, where they are encouraged to use vocabulary structures and grammar of Standard English. They will read a reasonably wide range of classical and contemporary literature and encouraged to think about how we use different types of language to achieve particular effects. Discussion of literature will often involve consideration of social and moral issues . They will be taught how to write prose that is grammatically correct, carefully punctuated and accurately spelled.
● Maths
Building on the foundation laid in Primary School, students will extend calculating skills to fractions percentages and decimals. They will begin to use algebraic techniques and symbols and be taught to how to use simple equations. They will progress from a simple understanding of the features of shape and space to using definitions and reasoning to understanding geometrical objects. They will study handling data through practical activities and be introduced to a quantitative approach to probability.
● Modern Foreign languages 
Students will become familiar with the sound systems written form and grammar of at least two foreign languages. They will read a range of information, practice situational conversation and learn about the culture of the languages being taught.
● Personal Development 
Sensitivity is given to areas related to students who are now entering puberty . Responsibility is given for a variety of school routines and time is given to discuss and develop learning styles and study skills and organisation for effective study.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Grades 5-6 : To encourage an understanding of world citizenship the programme includes studies of world institutions, politics and issues as well as human rights and career choices.
Grades 7-8 : The content of Global Perspectives now focuses on appreciation of art forms – theatre, cinema, architecture, visual arts, music .

EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT

In Grade 8 Students are able to have Cambridge Checkpoint Assessments in the core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science. This gives an indicator of how they will perform two years later in the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education ( IGCSE ).

High School:

Learners are entitled to a curriculum that includes a range of features at the different stages of learning. We provide young people with continuous opportunities to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work.

It is the responsibility of our school and its partners to bring together the experiences and outcomes and apply these entitlements to produce programmes for learning across a broad curriculum.

The Arts: The inspiration and power of the arts play a vital role in enabling our young people to enhance their creative talent and develop their artistic skills.

Languages: Knowing other languages and understanding other cultures is a 21st century skill set for students as they prepare to live and work in a global society.

Mathematics: This study equips us with the skills we need to interpret and analyse information, simplify and solve problems, assess risk and make informed decisions.

Social Studies: Through Social Studies (History, Geography, Global Perspectives), young people develop their understanding of the world by learning about other people, societies, their beliefs and values.

Science: An understanding of Science and its practical application in healthcare and industry is central to our economic future, for our health and wellbeing as individuals and as a society.