HRH The Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, KG, KCVO, honoured us by visiting Tarabya British Schools on Thursday, 15th October. HRH Prince Edward, congratulated our students who had achieved the Bronze Award at “Duke of Edinburgh International Award Programme” and officially opened our primary school in a historic building in Yeniköy.

HRH The Prince Edward was welcomed to our school by Mr. Mehmet Gültekin, TBS Founder and CEO, and Mrs. Janet Williams-İpek, our headmistress on his arrival at 14.00.

After his arrival, HRH The Prince Edward was greeted by our protocol guests, press, students, parents and our teachers at the ceremony area where he stopped to converse with the guests and especially our primary school students.

HRH The Prince Edward then proceeded to the meeting room with our protocol guests for a private meeting.

Present at this meeting were Dr. Muammer Yıldız, İstanbul Provincial Director of Education, Gürsoy Osman Bilgin, Sarıyer District Governor, İbrahim Tahmaz, Sarıyer County Director of Education, British Ambassador Richard Moore, BCCT Chairman Chris Gaunt, Hamdi Akın CEO of Akfen Holding and Sultan Yılmaz, CEO of Tikav. During the meeting, HRH The Prince Edward was informed in detail about Tarabya British Schools and he was presented with a Chinese jug decorated in a traditional Ottoman-Selcuk style by our Founder Mehmet Gültekin as a token of the day.

The Prince was then invited by the Head Girl and Head Boy to participate in an “Adventurous Journey”. The Prince was told about the jigsaw puzzle pieces he was to collect at each stage of the game. After each activity, he was given the last jigsaw piece of the puzzle.

To begin his tour and ‘earn’ the first puzzle piece, the Prince first played an instrument with our music students. After the tune, our students give the Prince a riddle that led him to the ICT Laboratory. Here he listened to and saw a demo of a mobile application for safety that was developed by some of our students before receiving another clue and puzzle piece that sent him to the sports area to meet more students. Finally, after listening to the projects our student clubs have achieved and chatting with the students, he proceeded to the reception area.

The programme, which began with our Headmistress Mrs. Janet William-İpek’s speech, continued with HRH The Prince Edward putting together all the jigsaw pieces he had obtained. The picture that appeared was a photograph taken when HRH The Prince Edward received his own Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award from his father, HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh many years earlier.

HRH The Prince Edward, presented TBS Founder and CEO Mehmet Gültekin and Janet Williams-İpek with a decorative plate for running the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Programme at TBS on behalf of the Duke of Edinburgh team in Turkey.

In his speech he thanked all the Award Leaders that had helped the youth as part of “Duke of Edinburgh International Youth Award Programme”.

The ceremony ended with HRH The Prince Edward unveiling the plaque for the opening of our Yeniköy Primary School, which has started this year in its historical building and a plaque to commemorate his visit to the high school campus.