TOKİ Atakent Spor Lisesi

TOKI Atakent Spor Lisesi (TOKİ Atakent Sports High School) is a public school which trains specialized athletes in their branches. It is one of the 76 sports high schools across Turkey and provides four years education. The school, started to serve in the academic year as Halkalı High School, continued as TOKİ Atakent Anatolian Health Vocational High School and as of the academic year, TOKİ Atakent Sports High School. The building is located in the Küçükçekmece district of Istanbul, half an hour drive to the New International airport.. It is 4 floors and the total area is 8075 m2. There are 24 classrooms, 7 labs, 1 computer room, 1 library, 1 conference hall, a covered gymnasium, 1 chess room, 1 table tennis hall, 1 fitness room, 1 gymnastics room, 1 gym, 1 canteen and lunch hall and facility corners. We have 1 principal, 3 assistant principals, 2 psychological counsellors, 44 permanent and 3 paid teachers (Ts) and 8 support personnel. We have 14-19 aged 659 strudents (Sts). 9th and 10th grades are sports high school, 11th and 12th grades are health services classes. Student admission is evaluated according to the score superiority of the aptitude test and secondary school success score. We have national and licensed athletes (football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, athletics, boxing, tennis, kick boxing and boxing, swimming, futsal, chess for girls an boys, gymnastics girls) who have won degrees in team and individual sport competitions. Our health vocational school is going to close or continue within another school in two years time as the students graduate. Sts are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds in socio-economic terms, from all over the district with low standard of living or with migrant parents with a poor educational and cultural level. Children of wealthy and/or educated families prefer us, too, because of their athletic identities and success of the school. Our sts with special educational needs such as ADHD, autism, etc. are integrated in regular classes. One of our aims is to be a sports school that constantly improves its successful position with its innovative, dynamic education staff who can use advanced education technologies and making use of student-oriented contemporary teaching methods. We want to be an organization that prepares environment for the physical, mental and moral development of its Sts, makes a name for itself with its national and international achievements in the field of education and sports. Our sports curriculum also includes sports anatomy and physiology, athlete health, sports and nutrition, sports psychology and sociology courses are compulsory. Graduates of our school will prefer to choose fields such as physical education teaching, coaching, etc. by getting university education in their fields. All our PE/sports teachers have taken these courses as main branch subjects in higher education and are certified to teach. Some of the topics of our Sports Psychology and Sociology course are motivation; anxiety, stress and arousal in sports; factors affecting sportive performance; group dynamics and interaction; basic concepts in sociology; socialization and group concept; social mobility and sport; issues such as national and international integration through sports. The former health vocational education has created a deeprooted culture in health studies as well. There are a Health Directorate, Sports Directorate, a Guidance and Research Center, 20 full-fledged hospitals, Faculty of Education, Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Humanities and Social Sciences fields in 3 universities. As the only sports school (and healthcare high school) in the district, our school cooperates with all these large public hospitals and their administration, and is able to get support from the universities and other institutions.