Founded in 2011 by three teachers, the school now has four classes, eleven teachers and a dietitian. The same faces still welcome you at the door every morning.
In 2011, when our own children reached school age, we looked for a small school with a garden in Kadıköy. We couldn’t find one, so we rented a family house and opened it ourselves.
We started with nine children. Today we have four classes, but we never made the classes bigger; the only thing that grew is the plum tree in the garden.
We are a private preschool licensed by the Ministry of National Education. Our programme builds on the national early-years curriculum and enriches it with play, nature and art.
Toilet training, holding a spoon, letters… Everyone in their own time. We don’t compare.
You can drop in and watch the class without notice. During settling-in week there is a chair for you in the class.
We don’t use tablets or television at school. Even in music time the instruments are real.
Most of our teachers have been with us for over five years. A child spends the year with the same faces.
A two-storey building inside a garden. Each class has its own toilet and nap room; the kitchen and sick bay are on the ground floor.
The note next to each teacher is a sentence from a child in their class. We only wrote it down.
Miss Elif taught us the frog song and I taught it to my mum.
Defne, 3
Class teacher · Stars
She enters the class with a song every morning and leads the art sessions; she has even kept her own childhood drawings.
Marmara University, Early Childhood Education · Teaching for 8 years
We planted tomatoes with Miss Zeynep. Mine got the biggest.
Can, 4
Class teacher, education coordinator · Rainbow
One of the school’s founders. She started the garden projects and the vegetable bed; children call her the “seed teacher”.
Hacettepe University, Child Development · Teaching for 14 years
Mr Mert’s drum is very loud but I’m not scared.
Ali, 5
Music and movement teacher
Drums, ukulele and lots of dancing. He visits every class twice a week and choreographs the 23 April show.
Istanbul University State Conservatory · Teaching for 6 years
My daughter cried the first week; by the second she was waving goodbye at the door. Being able to sit in class during settling-in week meant a lot to us.
Thanks to the photo note every evening we now know the answer to “what did you do today”. We see the menu in advance too, so we don’t cook the same meal at home.
Our son never wants to leave the garden. Going outside even in winter and having no screens were our reasons for choosing the school.
As the mother of a child with a food allergy, the kitchen was what I needed to trust most. After the first meeting with the dietitian I felt at ease.
Tour the school, see the classrooms and the garden, meet the teachers. Visits are on weekdays at 10:00 or 15:30 and take about 45 minutes.
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