The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid pass laws.

Lian from class 7c and Lidia from class 7d followed a call by the social pedagogues of P30 to participate in a creative activity against racism by  making their own short films. They both chose to go with stop motion but used different techniques and settings. Click on the pictures above and below to see the films.

This year nine IB Visual Arts students showed their studio work in the P30 Aula. As part of their final assessment the students thoughtfully curated their artwork, that has been created throughout the course. 

The exhibition ran until April 16 but you can still take the walkthrough tour here below. The tour was taken more than 300 times by members of the NMS community.

Due to the pandemic, the exhibition was not open to the public and visits had to be confirmed by the school management. Click on the picture below to see the full size exhibition picture. 

A short video presentation was created of the students work in the primary school and in the secondary school a padlet was set-up to share resources and contributions of students, teachers and educators.

As the 21^st of March was a Sunday this year, the school commemorated the day on Friday, 19^th March. On this day, many classes looked at the work of other classes, students or groups from the Nelson Mandela School plus read books, watched videos, did activities or/and discussed the topic of eliminating racial discrimination.

The students of class 9d created their own GIFs against racism that are collected in a padlet.

We spent the month of February discussing the topic of racism and exchanged our experiences. Some NMS art teachers used the opportunity during the Black History Month to specifically focus on visual art created by Black artists. The online art lessons, however, should be creative and product-orientated, not necessarily concentrate on more cognitive content that our students would get en masse from many other subjects.

04.03.2021

Dear Parents, 

As you have probably learned from the media, the existing regulations for our school with regard to -distance learning online-  will remain in place through this Friday, 5th March, 2021. Beginning Tuesday, March 9 our Grade 4,5 & 6 classes will resume in-person instruction. There will be at least three daily class room sessions with established half-class groups. In addition we will offer a modul of  study support and care. 

Ready to test
Meet our professional testing team, the four colleagues  have completed their training at the DRK today and will start conducting "Rapid Tests" for our staff (click on  the picture for larger version).

We would like to thank them for their service to our colleagues.

Principal Dr Bauer and Primary Principal Ina Claussen

Es kann losgehen!
Unser professionell ausgestattetes Testing Team möchte sich vorstellen, die vier haben heute ihr Training  beim DRK absolviert und werden Schnelltests für unsere  Kolleg*innen durchführen. Klick auf das Bild für eine größere Version.

Wir danken Ihnen herzlich für Ihre Unterstützung und den Service am Kollegium. 

Schulleiter Dr Bauer and Grundschulleiterin Ina Claussen

As a contribution to Black History Month 2021, the students of 11c wrote blog posts about how they see racism in the context of their daily lives in Germany. This project is inspired by our reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah, in which the central character, Ifemelu, records her observations about racism in the U.S. in a blog called “Raceteenth, or Various Observations about American Blacks […] by a Non-American Black.” 

Read on, and you will learn more about the importance of mental health in the Black community, the spoken and unspoken assumptions confronting Asian Germans, the appropriation of Middle Eastern youth culture, why being “old-fashioned” is no excuse for racism, how difficult it can be for non-EU citizens to get a visa to continue their studies at NMS, why confronting racism is more important than the Bundesliga, and much, much more!

Kai Linke and the students of 11c

Link to the blog: https://nmsberlin.wordpress.com/

Earlier this school year, 14 NMS current and past students and parents put on their creative hats and submitted their designs for the NMS 2020 Design Contest. 

We warmly thank everyone who participated: Diana (4C), Francesca (6B) + Fabienne (6D) + Clive (parent),Smaranika (Semi) (6C), Lian (7C), Leo (8b), Tristan (8D), Robyn (11B), Torie (11D), Sophie (Q2), Rosalie (Q2), Maya (Q4), Dante (IB13), Tamy (alumna), Stuart (parent)

This February, a jury consisting of 6 NMS students + parents from Primary + Secondary voted on the winning designs. After reviewing and discussing the submissions, their votes are as follows for the NMS 2020 design contest:

• Winning design (shown above): by Stuart Rittschof
• Honorable Mentions: Dante Martinelli, Rosalie Borkowski, Lian Baumann

The winning design will be featured on NMS t-shirts + sweatshirts/hoodies starting this spring/summer. The honorable mention designs and the winning design will be featured on a limited collection of cotton tote bags and possibly on hoodies too.

In surrealen Zeiten entstehen surreale Bilder

Im Rahmen meines Praxissemesters im Lehramtsstudium an der Universität der Künste durfte ich, Caroline Meyer, die letzten turbulenten Monate in Zeiten der Corona-Pandemie an der Nelson-Mandela-Schule hospitieren und auch selbst Online-Unterricht gestalten. In der Klasse 9d bei Florentine Baumann entstand dabei die tolle künstlerische Reihe zum Unterrichtsthema Surrealismus. Mit Webcam eingeschaltet vor dem Laptop sitzend, betraten die Schülerinnen und Schüler der Klasse 9d den virtuellen Kunstunterricht via Google Classroom und erhielten für die nächsten 20 Minuten die Aufgabe, ein surreales Selbstportrait aus mindestens 20 unterschiedlichsten Requisiten aus Zimmer/Küche/Bad zusammenzulegen.

DISTANZ-UNTERRICHT

Berlins Schülerinnen und Schüler lernen wieder online. Unsere Schule ist mit der G-Suite-Enterprise-Lizenz bestens ausgestattet. Die Daten bleiben in der EU, alle Schülerkonten sind pseudonymisiert und werden von der Schule verwaltet. Die Lernplattform Classroom und das Videokonferenztool Meet werden entsprechend unserer Datenschutzrichtlinien aus dem Jahre 2018 eingesetzt. Unsere Lehrkräfte werden in jedem Monat professionell weitergebildet. Das Online-Handbuch vom Juni 2020 enthält viele Tipps und Hinweise zum Online-Lernen. Da dieses Handbuch recht umfangreich ist, haben wir hier einige wichtige FAQs für Lehrkräfte, Schülerinnen und Schülern und ihre Eltern zusammengefasst.

Video #StayathomeChoir: Memories (Maroon 5) - Cover Dezember 2020 - YouTube

The love of music connects us even in these difficult times. Together with over 140 students from the Nelson-Mandela-Schule Berlin, the Max-Steenbeck-Gymnasium Cottbus and various choirs and orchestras from Germany, Sweden, Austria, the USA and the world, we recorded a large choir video at the end of 2020. We are happy that music-making and singing together can take place even in such difficult times, but we are also looking forward to singing and making music in school again. The project was carried out by Felix Theuner, who is currently teaching as a practical semester student at the Nelson Mandela School in Berlin.

A musical offering from Primary Choir volunteers in year 5 & 6. Huge thanks for amazing advice and technical help from the multi-talented Julia Naji.

We present in a cappella: 'Silent Night;' 'Mary's Boy Child;'  'We Wish You a Merry Christmas.'

Video here