← Back to homeÖzel SEV Okulları, Çekmeköy Yerleşkesi
Istanbul, Turkey · est. 1997 · Private
Illustration · Istanbul
Özel SEV Okulları opened in 1997 with eighty-four children in the preparatory group and the first grade; the school is run by the Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı foundation, set up by graduates of the American colleges of Üsküdar, İzmir, Tarsus and Talas. Since the 2023-2024 academic year the Çekmeköy campus has held the preschool stage and the middle school, while the primary school of the same school stands on a second campus in Çamlıca. Lessons are taught in Turkish - in the school's words, “okulumuzda eğitim dili Türkçe'dir” - apart from English and the second foreign language, but the kindergarten runs a bilingual programme in which the Turkish and the English class teacher cover the same topics, and alongside them lessons are given by teachers whose first language is English. From the fifth grade a second foreign language is added, and children take music on an instrument of their choice: percussion, guitar, piano or violin. The only way into the school is at the preschool stage, and it is decided by a draw before a notary; in the middle school places are topped up in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades on the school's own assessment of academic development, and into the eighth grade no transfers are taken at all. The school has no high school: eighth-graders with an average of 75 or above enrol directly in the preparatory year of SEV Amerikan Koleji. The school sets its fees by 31 May for the coming academic year and announces them to parents, but the amount cannot be found on the site: the document with the fees does not open from the page about payment.
Key facts
Languages of instruction
Turkish, English
Languages taught
German, French, Spanish
About the fees The school sets its fees once a year and puts it this way: “her yıl 31 Mayıs tarihine kadar bir sonraki akademik yılının okul ücreti belirlenir ve hem basın hem de web sitesi aracılığıyla velilerimize duyurulur”. Re-enrolment happens in May: the parent comes to the school, pays the first part of the fee and signs a form for the remaining parts. The school publishes the amount as a separate document for the 2026-2027 academic year, but the link to that document does not open from the page about payment. In the answers to frequently asked questions about fees it says only “2026-2027 eğitim öğretim yılı ücretleri açıklandığında burada duyurulacaktır”.
Admissions Admission to the school is only at the preschool stage - to the nursery and to the preparatory group - and it is decided by a draw: “Okula öğrenci kabulü yuva ve ana sınıf seviyesinde yapılır”. Applications are made within the announced dates through the network, the psychological service talks with each child separately, and if there are more applications than places the draw is held before a notary, producing a main list and a waiting list. No one has any advantage: “Her bir öğrenci adayı için herhangi bir ayrıcalık bulunmadan bireysel başvuru ve kura çekimi yapılmaktadır” - not twins, not children of graduates, not citizens of other countries. No sessions with the child are held before the draw. In the middle school places are topped up in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades on an assessment of academic development, and the number of places is counted after the school's own students have re-enrolled; into the eighth grade no transfers are taken. The quota for 2026-2027: 80 places in the nursery groups and 60 in the preparatory groups, with no division between girls and boys. Whoever gets into the school at any level stays to the end of the eighth grade.
Stages and year groups Grades up to grade 8. This campus runs the preschool stage and the middle school: the nursery and the preparatory group in one building, the middle school from the fifth to the eighth grade in another, at the same address. The ministry's list of private educational institutions gives two licences at this address - ÖZEL SEV ANAOKULU and ÖZEL SEV ORTAOKULU. The primary school of the same school stands on a second campus in Çamlıca. The school has no high school: middle school graduates with an average of 75 or above across the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades and with no disciplinary penalties enrol directly in the preparatory year of SEV Amerikan Koleji, in order of their averages. Written assessments start in the fifth grade. Classes at the preschool stage have 20 children.
Address Nişantepe Mah., Dikiliağaç Sok. No: 32, Çekmeköy, İstanbul
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
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CISCouncil of International Schools
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Schools of the Sağlık ve Eğitim Vakfı, the Health and Education Foundation: the foundation was established in 1968 by graduates of four American schools in Turkey - Üsküdar American Academy, American Collegiate Institute, Tarsus American College and Talas American Middle School, - is governed by a board of trustees and a board of directors on a voluntary basis and exists separately from the schools. The foundation names eight institutions of its own: four American colleges - Üsküdar American Academy, American Collegiate Institute, Tarsus American College and SEV American College, - three Turkish SEV schools, in Istanbul, Izmir and Tarsus, and the Redhouse publishing house, set up as a separate company, SEV Yayıncılık. The cities are Istanbul, Izmir and Tarsus; the Istanbul kindergarten and middle school have moved to a campus in Çekmeköy.
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.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓LibraryA library and media centre: a collection in Turkish and English, reference works, periodicals and electronic sources plus books in the second foreign language, a catalogue on the Follett Destiny system, an equipped teaching room and a computer laboratory. Library lessons stand in the timetable as a subject of their own.
✓CateringA dining hall where children are fed three times a day, and a canteen in the middle school; the kitchen is run by a contractor.
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Makerspace
Campus: The Çekmeköy campus holds the preschool stage and the middle school in separate buildings at one address; the primary school of the same school stands in Çamlıca. The campuses are open to families on the school's presentation days, and in March additionally on weekdays after lessons.
Clubs and activities: Wilderness survival · Quilling · Origami · Dance · Photography and video · Cake decorating · Fashion and accessories · Cartooning · Fencing · Gymnastics and yoga · JMUN · ISTA · FLL
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers62
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The middle school has 62 full-time teachers with an average of 14 years' experience, 23 of them hold a master's degree, and foreign teachers make up 14 percent of the staff. At the preschool stage 40 percent of the staff hold a master's degree, and the school lists that staff by post: teacher-leaders, Turkish class teachers, English class teachers, international teachers, subject teachers for physical education, educational technology, music and fine art, support teachers and educational psychologists, plus a separate learning-support service.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical roomThe medical service is a doctor and one full-time nurse on each of the two campuses; the school clinic is run by Acıbadem Mobil Sağlık. The doctor sits on the crisis committee and in the first-aid team, teaches first aid to school employees and to school transport drivers, and sits on the menu committee. Parents fill in each child's health details at the start of the year in the school system and update them every year.
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policyThe school has its own child protection policy, built on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and on the standards of the international child protection council. It applies to all school employees and to contractors' employees, it distinguishes a preventive line, which lowers the chance of harm, from a responsive one, along which the school acts when it suspects something, and it is called outright a means of orientation rather than of investigation.
✓Staff trainingUnder the same policy, only a teacher may help younger children with changing clothes and with the toilet: employees who are not teachers are not involved in this, and a child who asks is directed to a teacher. From 48 months the school expects a child to be toilet-trained and able to dress with a little help. The sanitary condition of the premises and of the school transport, tests of drinking and utility water in a specialised laboratory and regular infection checks on the catering contractor's employees are handled by the school as separate work. All students are insured against any incident during school hours. The primary school and the middle school both hold the “Beyaz Bayrak”, “Beslenme Dostu Okul” and “Yeşil Bayrak” certificates.
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)60 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 Value for money (6%) scored at the median64 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 7 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
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