FMV Ayazağa Işık Okulları

A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.

What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: PYP (ages 3-12), DP (ages 16-19). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams at the end. DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.

It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.

What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.

The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.

What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.

Schools of the Feyziye Mektepleri Vakfı foundation, FMV on its own pages; the invoices and the signatures on the site stand in the name of Feyziye Mektepleri Vakfı İktisadi İşletmesi, the commercial enterprise of the foundation. The network counts its beginning from the Feyz-i Sıbyan school, opened on 14 December 1885 in Thessaloniki by Mümeyiz Tevfik Efendi; the schools received the name IŞIK on 16 December 1934, on the forty-ninth anniversary. Besides the schools the foundation holds the FMV Işık university and a sports club. Five campuses, all in Istanbul: Nişantaşı, Ayazağa, Erenköy, Ispartakule and Florya, - and fifteen school units on them, because on each campus the kindergarten, the primary-and-middle school and the high school stand as separate institutions, while in Ayazağa, Erenköy and Ispartakule the high school and the Fen Lisesi are split apart. Of programmes the network names the International Baccalaureate - the PYP in the junior schools and the diploma in the high schools - and membership of the Global Schools Program.

What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.