Manisa Private “Sehzade Mehmet” High School, Turkey
The Private “Sehzade Mehmet” High School is dominantly situated on a hill on the outskirts of a large city, Manisa, Turkey. Manisa is on the westernmost fertile territories of Aegean Region in Turkey and it is located on the overbusy trade routes from the north to south, or from Istanbul to Izmir, a city with capacious docking facilities.
Information about our school, pupils, teachers, local areas, and social features
An organized industrial area adjacent to the land where our school is situated has been an exceptionally profitable source of splendid export trade over the last decade. Manisa is famous for its Philadelphia type of grapes, Mesir paste of intensifying nutritious alimentation made up of a fascinating variety of 41 beneficial spices, carpets and rugs of its mountainous areas, hot springs in its surrounding towns, profitable plantations of washing machines, refrigerators, mountain bikes, televisions and computers.
The most famous exporters of Turkish Industry occupy the local district. Industrial and agricultural fields invariably dot the district and venturers from a variety of places inhabit the fringes of the city. Apart from all industrial plantations, the city comprises such institutions as : hospitals, correctional institutions, local authorities, ground forces of the military, local bazaars, commercial enterprises dealing with grapevine trade, traditional establishments on Mesir Paste blended with 41 different kinds of spices to cure ailments.
School building
The school houses 30 or more teachers according to the heavy burden of the curriculum or the schedule. Teachers come from all over the country. Only one third of them are from the original area and the others are from various regions of Turkey. Our school doesn't have any socio-economical drawbacks. As we have a boarding school, 60% of our student population is composed of students from neighboring cities or regions all. We have students of various cultures and abilities also.
With the confirmation of our ministry of national education sister school activities have been started between our school and the Shu - Te Home Economics & Commercial High School, which is situated in the province of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. In this framework, mutual cultural activities, student exchange and similar activities have been carried out. Due to student exchange programmes confirmed by these institutions, a Taiwaneese student has been studying Turkish, English and German languages together with Turkish Culture in our school. In January a group of teachers and selected students of various abilities are going to Kaohshiung to accomplish a visit in return.
Our objectives and priorities
Project partners in Ephesus
Our school has devoted itself to scientific and social researches. In this context our school has taken part in many competitions inside and outside the country and gained a myriad of achievements.
Our essential aim is to expand our students' horizons in the name of education, to maintain intercultural exchange, and to excite the consciousness of European citizenship among our students.
One of the major specifications in providing world peace is to maintain mutually established everlasting dialogue. Our primary goals our school chases after are to contribute to the world peace by means of trying to prevent racism and xenophobia, and to show our counterparts in Europe that we are also a part of it, and to introduce our shared values to other nations. In terms of collaboration with partners in Europe, we aim to establish new and productive relations with European countries as well as to learn from the experience of the countries -to- be included in the European nations.
Layout of our school, including its history, programs, activities or clubs
We aspire:
To increase the motivation of students and teachers
To get information about the implementations of various schools in Europe
To share new administration appreciations and problem solving techniques
To excessively enhance the students' interests to school, motivation and their level of success
To share different ways of thought and country cultures with parents, their children and teachers
To improve new abilities ( especially for teachers and students)
To get to know high-spirited colleagues from variant European cultures to share their experience synergistically
To increase student ability to speak a foreign language fluently
To be informed about various education systems and methods of learning and to increase the spirit of unprecedented innovation in education.
Brief history and physical structure of our school
On the Bursa-Izmir Highway a huge school building in the shape of an L -inside of which looks toward an Organized Industrial Area on the intersection of many crowded trade routes- lies on a large hillside territory of a pine forest.
The educational building, constructed in 1993 on a vast ground of area, was elaborated year by year with the additions of a basketball field, an artificially carpeted football field, a prominent kiosk in the frontyard for both the students and teachers to rest during breaks and a large backyard with a lawn. The four-story building carries fine traces of Turkish traditional architecture with its arches on the ground floor veranda.
On the northeast side part of the building there is a canteen on the ground floor and the dormitory rises "on the floors from the 1st to the 4th. On the northwest side part of the building, a dining hall with the capacity of 350 persons stays on the ground floor, plus there are bureaus on the 1st floor and the classrooms, physics, chemistry and biology laboratories on each floor, teachers' room and branch offices on the other floors. On the south angle of the school building is a large theatre, with a balcony, that covers the whole three floors.
The school houses 450 students and the dormitory 150 students. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are decently served to 300 students each day at exact hours. Along with a body building salon and a wrestling salon that both the students and teachers can use to practice their daily exercises there are also a large library, a big video and movie salon, a pocket multi media room, history, geography and computer classrooms.
A central heating system provides the whole school building with hot water all the time including the dormitory and main educational area. An assistant director officially deals with the dormitory and each day three teachers stay overnight in shifts except on Fridays and Saturdays. A total of 50 personnel are on duty together with the board of directorate, assistant personnel and officials. In each official's room and in the teachers' room there are computers and printers provided with a ceaseless internet connection.
Important football and basketball matches are displayed on a large screen for the students who stay on week-days in the dormitory when they don't have any exams. All branch teachers carry out their lessons in two multi-media classrooms.
A custom our school practices for a long time is its participating in International Mathematics Competitions every year. Our school had many times 1st ,2nd and 3rd places. The students who had prizes and medals in these competitions study on a variety of branches at the universities they expected to attend. Innovative methods of teaching are provided for the teachers at the school via in-service training sessions held nationally at various times, and in recent years our teachers join in in-service training courses held in European countries through national agencies.
The Private "Sehzade Mehmet" High School started a Socrates-Comenius school project this year on historical and cultural awareness. Three partners are from Italy, one from Romania and one from Germany. One of our colleagues from the school is the international coordinator of the project. You can visit our web site in this address: www.sehzade.k12.tr
Education aspects at school
Schools in Turkey start in the second week of September and end in the second week of June every year. There is a fifteen-day vacation in the middle of the semesters. In Turkish Education System there are some principles regulating the Education System. The Turkish education system is organized on the basis of: - Constitution of the Turkish Republic - Laws Regulating Education and Instruction - Government Programs - Development Plans - National Education Councils
Based on these factors, education principles have been defined as follows;
Education shall be national, Republican, secular, functional and modern. In addition, education shall have a scientific foundation, incorporate generality and equality. Education system has democratic, modern, scientific secular and coeducational characteristics. The purpose of the Turkish Education System is to increase the welfare and happiness of the Turkish citizens and Turkish society, to support and facilitate economic, social and cultural development in national unity and integration and to make the Turkish nation a constructive, creative and distinguished partner in modern civilization.
