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.
We are very proud of the fact that all students learned how to ski and that many beginners were able to descend steeper slopes in a safe and technically sound manner. The ski groups showed excellent social behaviour and always supported each other. Most of them behaved exemplarily and abided by the rules, were respectful and polite. The senior students Lucas, Nina and Laylah significantly promoted the learning progress in skiing and professionally motivated their students. We are very grateful for their support and also for the financial support of the NMS Friends, which made their participation possible.
Head Nurse Bursi, the long-standing NMS teacher Astrid Bursian, reliably took care of all the tired and sick students and provided comprehensive support for skiers taking a break. Thank you very much for your tireless commitment! A big thank you also goes to all the other teachers who spent eight days often with students they had never met before, teaching them to ski or optimising their technique: Fabian Wandtke, Karla Koskuba, Karin Jaschke, Kate Heidemann, Sebastian Williams and Tanya Mokdad. Fabian Wandtke was the trip leader for this last ski trip and fulfilled his task to our utmost satisfaction. We thank him for a successful and enjoyable trip, during which we all had a lot of fun.
In conclusion, it can be said that the ski trip of the 8th year probably played a significant role in the social and sporting development of the young people and made an important contribution to their personal development. The intensive time spent together by all the students in the year group resulted in new friendships and alliances for the rest of their school career (and probably beyond). Almost all students at the NMS considered the ski trip to be the most important and enjoyable ‘class trip’ of their school career. Finally, we would like to thank the initiator of the first ski trip, Ilona Heyder (former social education worker), who first went to South Tyrol with teachers Bruno Osuch and Hans Künzel and interested students in 2005. After that, the ski trip became established as the class trip of Y8 and was held in Austria under the leadership of Holger Schauer, head of the sports department.
Florentine Baumann (ski trip companion since 2010)