In this year's reading competition organised by the Berlin UNESCO project schools, Carolina Barrera from class 7b was delighted to take 5th place. Emilia Garavy from class 6a was one place ahead of her and came fourth overall. She even came first in her age group (Year 6)!

The theme of this year's competition was friendship and love. Carolina impressed with the text "Courage is ..." by Jennifer Wiener. (The jury expressly praised her choice of text.) And Emilia kept the audience enthralled with an extract from Joanne K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". Both also mastered the spontaneous reading aloud of an unpractised text, the second challenge in the competition, with the jury choosing the novel "Grüne Gurken" by author Lena Hach. The text humorously tells the story of a child who comes to Berlin from a village in Hesse and tries to find his feet in the big city, wondering about the "crazy" residents here.

Cakes and Zines festival is a celebration of zine culture, art, community, and diversity. This
year’s festival took place on Saturday 16th March on TU Berlin grounds and along many zines
featured our primary campus students' work. Three of NMS students attended the festival and
not only enjoyed exploring other people's work and tasting delicious vegan cakes, but made
important connections. Kourosh says: “I also really enjoyed the zine festival. It meant a lot to me
to be invited and to be part of this.”

The two students Lin Schwaag (8b) and Esther Wiedemann (8a) wrote their own songs in music lessons in seventh grade. Since then, songwriting has stayed with them and they have continued to work on new melodies and lyrics alongside their music lessons, both alone and with the support of their music teacher Felix Theuner. On 17.03.2024, the time had finally come: both students were able to present their own songs at the state competition Jugend musiziert at the Jazzinstitut Berlin. After an intensive rehearsal phase in the preceding weeks, they stood in front of a jury of singer/songwriters, accompanied by their music teacher on the piano, and were each allowed to present three of their own songs. In the subsequent discussion, the jury particularly praised the flow and energy of the songs, as well as the empowering content and the successful lyrics. Esther won 1st prize with 23 points and also a special prize for a performance at the JugendFEIER in the Chamber Music Hall of the Philharmonie with a fee of €1000. Lin achieved a 2nd prize with 20 points.

Congratulations on this outstanding achievement!

Since October 2023, the Grade 11 basic music course has been part of the Querklang+ project in collaboration with the University of the Arts. Under the guidance of the artists and students Ari Merten, Leander Kessel and Verena Lobert and their music teacher Felix Theuner, the students have tried their hand at experimental artistic and interdisciplinary work. 

The students learned to work in an interdisciplinary way during the process and put together the piece Is this the real life? Based on music, they embarked on a trip through various genres together, discovering their artistic personality and pushing their own boundaries. The premiere took place on 18.03.2024 as part of the Maerz-Musik Festival at the Universität der Künste.

Lucia from 7a, Carolina from 7b, Sara from 7c and Abigail from group 7c/d competed in this year's 7th-grade reading competition; 7d sent Nickles to the race. The students initially presented a brief passage from a book of their choice on the subject of love or friendship, then in the second round, they were required to read a more complicated passage that they were unfamiliar with. Carolina demonstrated the most persuasive mastery of this to the second semester jury and she will now represent the NMS in the competition of the Berlin UNESCO schools on 18.4.24, together with a person from grade 6. Congratulations!

We, Mr Wingerath's drama class, would like to invite you to our play, which will be performed on March the 14th at 6 pm in the auditorium of the Nelson Mandela School and on March the 15th at 11.30 am in „Die weiße Rose“. Our play is named after the gift of the same name "Wah-Du-Raa", which was presented to the NMS as part of a co-operation project between Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Kalpitiya. The "Wah Du Ran" dance project is being carried out in cooperation between the Nelson Mandela School and St Anne School, Thalawila, (Kalpitiya) Sri Lanka and the Education for Sustainable Development department of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district. "Wah Du Raa" is a dance theatre piece that seamlessly interweaves the principles of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The performance is inspired by the creative aesthetics of improvisational theatre, the dynamic and expressive dance style of so-called "German Dance" and the rich cultural heritage of traditional Kandyan dances from Sri Lanka.

From 28 January to 1 February 2024, 14 students from Years 11 and 13 of the Nelson Mandela School Berlin met 20 Polish students from Strzegom in Morawa, Poland.

On the first day, after we had settled into our beautiful and historic rooms, we got to know the students and teachers from Strzegom over coffee and cake. This was followed by lively games with the Polish group to get to know each other and break the ice. The visit to the Groß Rosen concentration camp the next day was one of the most moving moments of our trip. The students were guided through the exhibition and the grounds by Polish museum staff and, after a minute's silence, were given the opportunity to lay flowers for the countless victims of Nazi terror.

In the afternoon, the students were able to explore the town of Świdnica together for a few hours and then we travelled to Kreisau. There we were given a guided tour on the topic of "Resistance in the Nazi era" near the "Berghaus", the conspiratorial meeting place of the resistance fighters of the Kreisau Circle, including Helmut James Graf v. Moltke.

These are the last days for our students in Seville. On Monday they will be back at NMS! We are very much looking forward  hearing their stories!
Since the first exchange round with Seville was a success, the Spanish department is beginning to plan the second round!
Would you like to dive into the Spanish language and culture even more than just in your Spanish lessons?  
Are you ready to welcome an exchange student into your home for a period of 6 weeks?
Are you in year 9 or 10 next school year?
If yes, please contact your Spanish teacher or Ms. Velazquez directly!

This year's UNESCO project day took place on 01.02.2024. As part of 14 different workshops on the topics of anti-racism, anti-Semitism, colonialism, but also musical and dance-based discussions on the topic (Rhythm is life/ Voguing), the pupils were able to choose different workshops in advance according to their interests and attend them on the project day.
The day started with a joint assembly in the auditorium, which was accompanied by speeches from the school spokesperson Jasper and the organizer Ms. Wandtke. Principal Dr. Bauer gave opening remarks and former State Secretary Ms. Saraya Gomis sensitized the school community to racism in everyday life and how it can be countered. An explanatory video by Ufuq on the topic of discrimination enlightened the school community and set the mood for the day.
After a short break, the various workshops began and the respective groups dealt with the different topics in a very differentiated and critical way. They have led to a diverse discussion of current topics and hopefully broadened the students' horizons.
Franziska Wandtke/ 03.02.2024

This action was long overdue, but the initial spark was simply missing - on a Wednesday afternoon before the winter vacations 2024, the 12th grade Leistungskurs Art painted the girls' toilets on the first floor of the new building within two hours, covering up the graffiti on the walls and doors. The project was carried out on the students' own initiative as part of a self-learning phase, in which those students who had already made progress with their project work, spontaneously took up the paintbrush and paint roller. This toilet in shades of blue is a prototype - others are to follow. A pop art design is also to be applied to the blue background. After the Easter vacations, there will be a large painting campaign in which volunteers - led by the students in the Leistungskurs Art - can help to beautify other school toilets. The response from the pupils at least was very positive and they were amazed that after years of talking about it, such an impressive success for the community could be achieved in such a short space of time with a lot of fun and enthusiasm.

On 22 January 2024, Year 7 celebrated the annual ballad festival in the aula. Representatives of all German courses in Year 7 wowed the audience with entertaining and exciting productions of famous ballads such as "Der Knabe im Moor", "Die Golgräber" and "Seeräuber Jenny". This year, for the first time, particularly successful performances were awarded the Balladi, lovingly designed by the art department.

From 11.1. to 22.1.2024, nine students and a teacher from the Monterosa School in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia, visited Berlin and the Nelson Mandela School to deepen the partnership as part of the archiSCHOOL project. archiSCHOOL enables high school students from both schools to practice an intensive intercultural exchange through cooperative architectural projects, because it is about the joint conception of architectural planning, taking into account geographical, climatic, cultural and sustainable aspects. The Mongolian student group that visited our school in the week from January 15 to 19 has already worked online with different NMS student groups over the past two years. 

During their stay in Berlin, the Mongolian students took part in courses at the Jugendkunstschule (community art school), visited Berlin's sights, the New National Gallery, the Humboldt Forum and the Palais Populaire, they visited the Museum of Technology and the Spektrum, the Green Week, went shopping several times and attended the preIB lessons of the 11th grade and the Leistungskurs (12th grade). In a total of eight hours, they worked in small mixed groups to create innovative architectural plans for multi-generational houses in a location of their choice, visualized them and documented them on a joint website. The cooperation with the Mongolian students was beneficial in many respects, but in particular it broadened the horizon for many with regard to a country that is unknown to most and its very special social and cultural conditions.