23 NISAN ORTAOKULU, KECIOREN, ANKARA, TURKEY
www.kecioren23nisan.meb.k12.tr
23 Nisan Secondary school is located in Keçiören in Ankara, the capital city. It is a state school with 1500 students and 95 teachers.It is known as one of the most successful, eminent and crowded schools in Ankara. We have classes from 5th to 8th grades.Our students are 11-14 years old.We have 79 inclusive students. They take the same courses and activities with other students but they also take special lessons from the teachers seperately in special support rooms . We have two kindergarten classes.We have two special classes for ten students who have special learning disabilities.Two special education teachers look after these classes.We have four school counsellors,they take care of students who have problems with their families and the school.
Our school is a successful school in the field of sports like football, handball,futsal ,table tennis ,boccie ,cycling ,field hokey and especially wrestling. We have won very important awards in those areas.One of the most important one belongs to our wrestling team.They won the first place in wrestling championship in Ankara in 2016.There are also many extracurricular activities in our schools.The courses of traditional folk dances ,woodworking plane ,modern guitar training ,wrestling,field hokey ,table tennis ,handball, taekwondo ,dart ,basketball ,volleyball ,boccia and futbol courses are some examples of these extracurricular activities.
As we live close to a territory of Middle East , full of terrorism,conflict and hatred ,we have 45 immigrant students from different countries like Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia in our school.They don't know our language and moreover they speak little English or none.That really causes major problems in communication and also their adaptation to their educational and social life. Consequently our school has been facing the problem of isolation of foreign students arriving to our local society. We are observing two opposite attitudes of our students towards the students who live a culture shock . Firstly , they decide to convince the foreign students about predominance of Turkish culture and their beliefs or, in the second place , they concentrate on the foreign students’ culture and do not know how can they present their own traditions or styles of their lives with respect to others. Both attitudes show that students need to be informed for expanding their horizons about tolerance and respect which are extremely essential terms to form them as citizens of the world with the respect to all and own cultures.We, as teachers, have noticed that our students are not aware of the fact that we can respect other cultures without ignoring the own one.
Apart from those immigrant students and refugees,there are some students from the disadvantaged areas of Eastern Part of Turkey These students has social and economical obstacles. We also have many students in need of special support due to physical handicaps.
Our students cannot afford to go abroad due to financial difficulties.Therefore having visitors from other European countries to talk to and later interact through facebook or a blogpage will be really a great value for them.
In our school ,students and teachers are involved in interesting extracurricular projects and activities,there are lots of exhibitions,panels,poetry recitations,concerts, sport tournaments.Our teachers also run many etwinning projects.But a considerable part of our students don't show necessary attention and motivation to the study of the several subjects.We believe that this project make them see things from a different perspective.
In spite of all these negative issues,our school has a rising graph.In 2016 we moved to a new building and that brought a new dynamism to our staff.
Our school is also awarded with Total Quality Management in 2010 for participating effectively in Comenius Project named 'How European Little Children Can Change the World'.
We introduced the wearing of uniforms to equalize students economically.
Through the end of the academic year we organize school picnics and a collaborative festival named 'Kermes' for celebrating the whole year with the participation of all students and the parents.
