The school is VERY far from the city. Probably about an hour by bus from downtown (Istiklal) The provided housing is either near the school (but still a good solid 30-40 minute bus ride picking everyone up) or closer to downtown (40 minutes by bus to the school, or 30-40 minutes from downtown)

The school does not hire most international teachers legally.

As such, they may not pay you everything they say they will, and there is nothing you can do about it. They will NOT get you a work permit.

The school is to baby-sit rich spoiled kids, and good children are rare. The school has a library with maybe 100 books, none of which usable.

For kindergarten, very little was supplied beyond the first unit, except for a page of what they expected you to teach and maybe a few random photocopies of worksheets used in years past.

The head of the foreign teachers, Mal, will promise you anything to make you happy, and promise the school administration anything to make them happy too. Guess who he is more likely to follow through with? Yes, the administration, no matter what.

I saw a married couple have to leave half way through the year due to a pregnancy, the school did not give them all the money they were owed, and showed no sympathy, stating that they were breaking a contract.

Another teacher was promised that she would be kept on only as long as her residency permit was valid, and she would not get any fees or blacklistings, or overstay markings on her passport.

The school filed for the extension necessary near the start of the year. The Turkish government never affirmed or denied the 3 month extension in over 6 months. The person in charge of this, Yildroy, stated there would be no problem even past the first date the extension would be in effect. Even approaching the END of the hypothetical extensions deadline, the school would not let her leave (she is breaking an imaginary contract and would get no money) and said everything would be fine. I am not even sure the school EVER filed for the extension, I just know that she never got it, and despite having agreed before the year that she would only stay if it was legal, the school refused to let her go when her legal stay was finished, unless she wanted to pay the overstay fee herself and get no severance help from the school, plus they said they would report her and her family etc etc.. First the school said there was no overstay fee accumulating because she had an extension on file. Then later they said that it was accumulating, but that they would pay it. But not for her kid, only her. Always first one thing, then another. Everything was always "tomorrow, tomorrow"

NO SYMPATHY FROM THE SCHOOL. They are looking for baby sitters and people to look good to the parents. If you are lucky there will be no problems with my money. Many others had big problems with their money. If you care about class size, kids who listen, administrators that care about education, access to resources, or pretty much anything except a reasonable pay and good holidays (oh and unpaid saturdays, and plenty of them) there are much better schools to pick in Istanbul.

From an education standpoint, the school is expensive to parents and relies on this money, so simply tries to please the parents. Appearances are more important than anything. The parents are always right. If you have a kid who is failing and give a failing grade, the school will change the grade to a minimum of a C+ (this is not a joke, ALL teachers Turkish and foreign reported this)

There are better options in Istanbul.

The contract, since you do not have a work permit, is not legal. They change it from time to time, even. Sometimes to benefit you, sometimes them. They will stick their neck out for you sometimes, and others will promise and promise and never deliver.