Extra curricular activities at the Koç school

The extra-curricular activities aspire to discover our students’ talents, to guide them in a reasonable direction and provide them with the opportunity to develop their skills as well as helping them grow into well-rounded individuals with creative and open minds.

Our students attend at least one extra-curricular activity class each week. The activities are conducted in three different areas. CREATIVITY, SOCIAL SERVICE and SPORTS.

The Koç School students are expected to be creative, productive, self-confident individuals who always take aim at the best, willing to share their knowledge and skills with others and who are open to constant change and self-development and aware of their responsibilities towards their family, friends, country and the World.

Procedure

At the beginning of the year, our students make three choices among the activities that they are offered within the yearly program. Then they are assigned to one of their choices. They can attend more than one activity (sports, dance, music, drama, cinema, photography, social service, etc.) if they can arrange their programs accordingly.

Advisors

Each student has an advisor. The advisor is expected to provide the student with guidance about the activity, observe student performance and make interventions if necessary. At the end of the year, the advisor assesses the overall performance of the student and the result of this assessment is indicated in the report card.

Our teachers indicate the activities they would like to advise each year and one of the teachers of the activity that is chosen by the students is assigned as the advisor for that year.

In club and outside club activities, advisors work with students to direct and support them in their activities (i.e. social responsibility, creativity and sports), warn them if necessary and at the end of the year, enter into the system the total number of working hours for each student.

Responsibility

All students are required to attend the extra-curricular activities except for the Grade 12 students. Extra-curricular activities are optional for our seniors. For the rest of the students, these classes are compulsory and attendance is taken during the activity class.

Students are obliged to complete at least 100 hours of activity starting from LP until Grade 11. At least 25 of these hours have to be social service hours.

Permanent social responsibility

It is compulsory for every Koç School student to get involved in a Social Responsibility Project for 25 uninterrupted hours, e.g. teaching younger students in other schools or nurseries to dance, to play an instrument, to play basketball or chess or working in a social service institution like an hospital or a rest home.

Campaigns

Our students assist NGOs with their projects such as the “Sea Cleaning” event organized by Turkish Marine Environment Protection Association, TEMA’s (The Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats) “One Million Oaks” campaign and various education campaigns intended for schools in Eastern and Southeastern Turkey organized by Association in Support of Contemporary Life.

They also collect books for schools that do not have a library and clothes for children from impoverished areas. They conduct food sales at our school and use the money they earn to finance a social responsibility project.

Art and social responsibility

Our students can use their artistic talents in fields of music, dance or drama to realize social responsibility projects intended for elderly people in rest homes or children in nurseries.

Projects

In addition to the above-mentioned activities, our students also attend project competitions. For example, the international environment protection competition organized by VOLVO …

A group of our students participated in this competition with a project where they collected juice and milk boxes and had them pressed in blocks to be employed to build desks and chairs for a school. They received the first place award with this project nationally and internationally.

Creative activities

Our students attend various drawing, ceramics, photography, drama, dance, short film and short story contests with the support of their advisors and bring our school awards while improving their talents.

They also participate in many national and international projects and contests in fields of mathematics and science and receive honorable mentions.

International clubs

Model United Nations, European Youth Club, Comenius and Unesco Projects, Archeology Club, Bridges Club help our students enhance their organizational skills, learn to understand the notion of ‘difference’ and accept it. With the aid of these international clubs, they improve their communicative skills as well as their English. They also have the chance to get to know different cultures closely and to learn more about museums, architecture, nature and political systems.

Sports

Our students who play sports like football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, skiing, and athletics attend tournaments and competitions in and out of school, contributing to their physical development as well as their ability to develop healthy communication within a team. They bring our school a considerable number of awards every year. Furthermore, with the organization of our Student Council, our students support Turkish national teams by attending international games as audience.

Our school is well-known with its aspiration to provide its students with opportunities that would enhance their character traits and improve their talents in addition to contributing greatly to their academic development. The major reason behind this reputation is our school’s strong emphasis on EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES.

IT IS OUR FIRST AND FOREMOST OBJECTIVE TO GRADUATE YOUNG INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE EAGER AND ABLE TO ASSUME SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES!

Nesrin URHUN
Extra-Curricular Activities Coordinator