The concert project WEGE with the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, the Frauenchor der Künste, the Kammerchor der Künste, our NMS-PopChoir accompanied by Elisabeth Baumann and Felix Theuner and pupils from the Luise-Henriette-Gymnasium and the Gemeinschaftsschule auf dem Campus Rütli took place in the Joseph-Joachim Saal at the Universität der Künste (UdK) on March 13 and 14, 2025. 

After two intensive days of rehearsals at the UdK with all 150 singers under the direction of Prof. Maike Bühle and Gregor Meyer, we were able to present our songs at a concert on March 14 at 18:00 in front of a full hall. The many different constellations in which we were able to perform our music on stage were particularly enjoyable. In addition to the choir performance, the additional basic music course also worked on three small interventions to the song Apple Tree by Aurora and performed them on stage. In the coming weeks, we will share a recording of the entire concert. 

We are already looking forward to the next joint projects and concerts with the UdK.

This year's ski trip for the eighth-graders will be the last in the history of the Nelson Mandela School, because the school community has decided to discontinue it in the future for environmental reasons. Instead, an eighth-grade trip will be held in the summer with sports activities at a different location.  

From 14-22 February 2025, the entire eighth grade, eight teachers and three upper secondary school students went to Seeboden, Carinthia, to ski at the Goldeck ski resort for six days. As always, the trip started in front of the sports hall on Güntzelstraße and at around 7 p.m. a double-decker bus set off with all the participants on board. At around 7 a.m. the bus arrived at the accommodation, the Ertlhof in Seeboden, and everyone was treated to a delicious breakfast. Three of the teachers came by car to be more flexible once they arrived. On the first day, the group went on a long hike in the picturesque surroundings and rented ski equipment before they could move into their rooms in the afternoon. In the evening, the ski groups were divided and a first meeting was held, during which the ski passes were handed out and the ski rules were discussed. The day went by quickly and since everyone was still quite exhausted from the night drive, we went to bed early. The next day, the first day of skiing began early at 7 a.m., breakfast was at 8 a.m., and the ski bus picked us up at 9 a.m. At first, it took a while for all students to find their ski equipment at the valley station and to drag it up the mountain in the gondola. After warming up on the mountain, the ski lessons began, from about 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. From 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., everyone met for lunch at the hut, where the packed lunches were eaten and one or two mountain hut specialities were ordered. In the afternoon, skiing was done again until 3 p.m. Then the groups took the gondola to the valley station, returned their ski equipment and waited for the bus, which arrived at 4 p.m. and took us back to the hostel. There, the students had the opportunity to go to the local supermarkets in groups, play in the garden or make themselves comfortable in their rooms. Dinner was at 7 p.m. and at 8 p.m. the individual ski groups met, which often changed according to the students' current level of ability. At 9:30 pm, the students should slowly go to their rooms and from 10 pm, everyone had to be quiet. This daily routine was repeated until the day before departure, when the equipment had to be returned after skiing. On the last evening, everyone packed their bags and then all the students were allowed to let off steam at the disco that the sixth-formers had organised for them. On the morning of 22 March, we returned to Berlin, unfortunately having to wait quite a long time for the bus. Since our bus did not leave for Berlin until around 9:30 in the morning and we had some traffic delays and even a bit of a traffic jam on the way, we unfortunately did not arrive in Berlin until after 10 p.m.  

In the week from 6 January to 10 January 2025, our Q2 art class had the unique opportunity to work together with fashion design students from the University of the Arts (UdK). Our joint project presented us with an exciting challenge: to create a completely new item of clothing from a jacket and a shirt.

Right from the start, the atmosphere was creative and full of energy. In small teams, we worked hard to create something completely new from two existing garments - an upcycling project that not only promoted sustainable design, but also challenged our creativity.

The result? An impressive variety of unique pieces. From cool waistcoats to artfully draped dresses - each garment tells its own story. It was fascinating to see how differently the teams approached the task and the innovative solutions that emerged.

But the best is yet to come: our creations will be auctioned off at the next school festival on 11 July 2025! This will not only give our creations a stage, but also allow them to be worn and continued by new owners. The project has not only given us new creative impetus, but also shown us how enriching collaboration can be.

This week was an experience that we will remember for a long time to come!

A great success for our young researchers! At the regional competition Campus Berlin-Buch, six students from Nelson Mandela School participated with their projects – and won first place in three categories. This achievement qualifies them for the state competition on March 19 and 20 at TU Berlin.

The Winning Projects:

• Tom Smee – “Can synthetically generated training data improve AI object recognition models?”
  🥇 Regional Winner in Mathematics/Computer Science
• Vibbodh Somani, Bhuvana Reddi, Kerem Semiz – “How do air pressure, water volume, and bottle shape influence the launch of a water bottle rocket?”
  🥇 Regional Winner in Physics
• Vibbodh Somani, Yamahn Tanjour, Sarah Ali – “Creating more efficient keyboards with genetic algorithms and chords”
  🥇 Regional Winner in the Workplace Category

Additionally, Nelson Mandela School received the MINTSPACE School Award for its outstanding commitment to STEM education.

Congratulations to all participants, and best of luck for the state competition! 🎉

On 21 January 2025, the traditional 7th Grade Ballad Festival took place in the assembly hall of the Nelson Mandela School. This festival, organized by the German department, is about selecting a ballad and performing it on stage in a compelling way. The four 7th grade German classes chose the ballads ‘Der Erlkönig’, ‘John Maynard’, ‘Die Goldgräber’ and ‘Der Zauberlehrling’, analysed their form and content and developed creative ideas for their stage presentation. As all four performances were very impressive, the jury of 8th grade students had a difficult time awarding the trophies (‘Balladis’) in the categories ‘Language’, ‘Performance’, ‘Costume/Props’ and ‘Sound/Effects’. In the end, we had a lot of fun at the Ballad Festival and we will certainly remember it for a long time

Roman (Abi Q2), Ben (Abi Q2), Jonas (11c) and Tarish (11b) represented our school at JTFO table tennis. In the competition group of the oldest pupils, they achieved an outstanding 2nd place in the schools' tournament and played table tennis at a high level. Congratulations on this great success!

After the intra-school competitions, our school took part in the ‘Jugend debattiert’ regional competition at the Sophie-Scholl-Schule for the first time on 28 January 2025, in which four other secondary schools also took part. Henriette (9a), Lin (9b) and Ryan (10d) debated with great commitment in age group 1 (8th-10th school year), but unfortunately did not reach the final due to the strong competition. The topics of the debates were ‘Should smoking be banned in public?’ and ‘Should a licence plate requirement be introduced for bicycles?’ Kilian (9a), Eliot (9c), Bendix and Hugo (both Q2) acted again as competent judges - as they did in the intra-school competitions. Rasmus (9c), Lynn (10a) and Fanny (Q2) did not take part, but were in the audience cheering on the debaters from our school.

We are already looking forward to next year's competition, for which all participants will be more experienced!

The advanced textiles course for Year 9 students travelled to Morawa, Poland, from 21 January to 25 February to create artistic textile designs with their Polish peers. The 14 students were supervised by Florentine Baumann and handicrafts assistant Birgit M'Pandzou. At the neoclassical Morawa manor house, a popular venue for German-Polish youth encounters, the group of 31 students were able to unleash their creativity crocheting, embroidering and weaving. In addition to the creative project work at the manor house, the group visited a weaving museum for linen production in Kamienna Gora and took part in a crochet workshop with a crochet influencer. The students also met 97-year-old Melita Sallai, who presented her life story in a documentary film. Afterwards, the students were able to ask questions. Melita spent her childhood in the manor house that belonged to her family of nine before the Second World War. At the end of the exciting week, during which the participants learned and practised their manual skills, made friends and explored German-Polish history, they presented their work in a small exhibition. The project is documented in this Padlet: 

https://padlet.com/showcase1/textile-design-trip-to-morawa-2025-n6mrrmptit2yzj1e