Can anyone help with directions from Kadikoy please? TIA.

It's right off E-5 near the Küçükyalı interchange. Are you going by public transport? Take an E-5'ten minibüs to Kartal or Maltepe and ask the driver to let you off at the most convenient point for the school.

am i missing the point or do you have some kind of inbuilt GPS system going...???

Ally - buy a map for fecks sake

I have a map - its public transport that I can't figure out I can still get lost in my hometown, Istanbul might as well be another planet!

I'm not sure if the same thing exists in another form, but francophone association "Istanbul Accueil" publishes every 2 years a guidebook called "Clefs pour Istanbul" (the last version was released last spring I think), full of useful and pratical information about life in Istanbul (such as contacts for specialist doctors, information about relocation, where to find activities for children,...). It's written in french, but still it's very easy to find information for non french speakers. The reason I mention it here is because they have included to this guide a little notebook you can easily slide in your pocket, called "Guide des transports", and where you find itineraries of most of buses and dolmus in Istanbul (european and asian sides), with their mains stops.
It might be of great help for newcomers !
You can find this guidebook in the little bookshop (Librairie EFY) at the entrance of the French Consulate (Istiklal Cd. n°8), or at their other address (Istiklal Cd, Emin nevruz çikmasi n°18). I think it costs something like 30 ytl, but you can choose your price, the money is going to the charity associations Istanbul Accueil is working with.

You may find the following of some help.

CITY BUSES

Go to page http://www.istanbul.net.tr/istanbul_iett.asp

In the box “nereden” (from where) write your departure point
In the lower box “nereye” (to where) write your destination.

The list of buses that you can take will. In the boxes on the right you will find a list of the stops that these buses take.

For schedules (timetables), go to the site of IETT : http://www.iett.gov.tr/en/saat/hareketsaati.php?hid=hat and follow the instructions ( English version of the site)

Get detailed information of your bus at “Hat Numarasi”, if you know which bus you are taking.


“HOW TO GET THERE” INTERNET SITE

This is an online project of municipality : http://gis.iett.gov.tr/map.asp

choose your departure point “kalkis yeri” and arrival point “varis yeri” and when you click “göster” you get a screen with alternatives to get to your destination. You can choose one or more of these following alternatives :

IETT Otobüsleri : Buses
Metro
Vapur : Boat
Deniz Otobüsü : Boat
Banliyö : Train

In the resulting page, a list of lines appear. Next to the lines you will read
“hareket saatleri” : “schedule” (timetable)
“hat göster” : “detailed map”

In the coming map, each stop is shown seperately.

On the main page ( http://gis.iett.gov.tr/map.asp ) you can also search for addresses either by clicking on the map or by writing into the boxes on the right the following:

Cadde sokak : street address
Mahalle : the name of the area if you know it
Ilçe : choose the name of the district from the list