In a democratic education system, it is important to provide equal opportunity to every child. Both educators and researchers acknowledge a gap between students who attend school ready to learn and those who do not. School readiness prepares students for this learning. The purpose of the study was to ascertain Turkish classroom teachers' expectations of first-grade students in terms of school readiness. To achieve this goal, Turkish classroom teachers' views on school readiness were collected. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with nine Turkish classroom teachers. Data were analysed using phenomenological study techniques. Seven major themes were derived from the data analysis: health screening, fine motor skills, self-confidence, self-expression, willingness to learn, toilet habits and negative transfer. Implications are discussed and recommendations are made for future studies.