MEF International School Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey · PrivateAn English-medium international school on the MEF group campus in Ortakoy, Istanbul. The school runs the International Baccalaureate and the Cambridge route side by side: the Primary School follows the IB Primary Years Programme, the Middle School prepares students for Cambridge Checkpoint, and the High School offers Cambridge IGCSE, the IB Diploma Programme and, for students who do not take the full diploma, the IB Certificate Programme. Turkish is taught as Host Country Studies, and the High School adds Turkish literature and a self-study course. The school belongs to the MEF group, which runs two international schools, one in Istanbul and one in Izmir.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP, DP · authorised programmeCIS · accreditationNEASC · accreditationMEF Okulları · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →An American accreditation working since 1885. For international schools it uses an approach where the visitors look first at live lessons rather than at folders of paperwork: the team works in the school for about a week. It is the only one here whose public directory honestly separates accredited schools from candidates.
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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Programmes of the University of Cambridge: the school teaches to Cambridge syllabuses and enters its pupils for exams that Cambridge marks itself. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
What this means for this school. The papers are marked by Cambridge, not by the school, so a leaver's grade does not depend on how strict their own teachers are with them. To enter pupils for these exams a school has to be registered as a Cambridge exam centre; registration as a centre is permission to run exams rather than accreditation of the school, and it says nothing about the quality of teaching. IGCSE is taken at around Year 10 or 11 and A-Level in the final years, and it is the A-Level results that carry a pupil into British and many other universities.
Schools of the company MEF Okulları A.Ş., which on its own pages is called an enterprise of Arıkanlı Holding; the founder is İbrahim Arıkan, and the network writes that from 1988 he studied the school systems of the United States, Japan, Germany, Russia and England on the spot, and set up his own model in 1996. The Ulus campus in Istanbul holds five schools - a kindergarten, a primary, a middle, a high school and a Fen ve Teknoloji Lisesi, - and separately the network names two schools of the international line, MEF International Schools in Istanbul and in Izmir. Alongside the schools the holding has MEF University. The network publishes no combined number of schools or campuses.
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.