It’s not every day that a potential Nobel Prize winner comes to our school auditorium to read excerpts from one of her works. So Jenny Erpenbeck’s visit on March 16, 2026, was something truly special, as she rarely visits schools to read from her novel Heimsuchung - which was on this year’s high school graduation reading list - and to talk about the novel’s creation. Students from the thirteenth grade moderated the reading and facilitated discussions. In addition to students from the twelfth and thirteenth grades of the Nelson Mandela School, the audience also included graduating seniors from the Schiller Gymnasium.

Once again this year, we emerged proudly victorious from the UNESCO Reading Competition. Sophie Chadwick (6a) secured first place, and Rosa-Lia Lengen (7a) took third place. After a welcome address to all the schools participating from Berlin, the order of the readers was determined by a random draw. Excitement mounted, and all participants had about two minutes to read the prepared passage from a book of their choice.

Both NMS readers impressed the audience with their rehearsed texts on the theme “I won’t let it get me down!” and delivered an impressive performance. After a break, another book was introduced, and passages from it that had not been rehearsed were read aloud. Both readers also delivered their performances with confidence when reading the unfamiliar text. 

The readers from the other schools also gave great readings. Many thanks also to the Ernst-Reuter-Schule for organizing this wonderful event.

This year’s BERMUN 2 conference hosted by the JfK school was especially engaging, since we discussed a very important issue under the banner theme of ‘Decolonize’, a term which is difficult to define but has deep ramifications. Even today, some countries engage in neocolonialism and whether colonialism is truly only an event that remains in the past is questionable.
In total, seven of us went to the conference and we all represented the United Kingdom; a challenging country to represent, given the theme. We were distributed across different committees: Arjun in the Middle School MUN, Lina in the GA4, Kerem & Cillain in the Security Council, Ivan in ECOSOC, Charlie in the GA3 and Vin in the Historical Security Council. Ivan also served as an ambassador and held an opening speech at the opening ceremony. He reported that he felt very excited and that it was an experience he will remember forever.
The guest speaker event was one of the most remarkable moments of the conference. The Honourable Jerobeam Shaanika, who is the ambassador of Namibia to Germany, spoke about the after effects of German colonialism.This event was very significant,because he explained how the colonial mindset of countries does not change, even after a country receives its sovereignty and gains independence and that Decolonization is a long process including psychological and cultural factors.
Overall, every single one of us had a lot of fun during this conference. The debate was very engaging and everyone was respectful to one another. I always look forward to participating in MUN conferences, since I learn a lot about politics and have the opportunity to meet new people.

From 21 to 25 January 2026, 18 students from class 9d of the Nelson Mandela School in Berlin met with 20 students from various Year 8 classes of Szkoła Podstawowa Nr 8 im. Kawalerów Orderu Uśmiechu in Świdnica at Morawa Castle in Poland to work together on the project “Memories for the Future,” which was initiated years ago by our former school social worker Bernard Szulc.

During the last week of school before the winter holidays, this year’s Berlin UNESCO Student Seminar took place at various UNESCO Project Schools in Berlin with students from Years 10 and 11. Over the course of the week, the group addressed topics such as hostility towards queer people and anti-feminism in social media, as well as other political challenges of our time. At the end of the week, the students designed stickers with messages for civil society in order to draw attention to social injustices. The Nelson Mandela School was also one of the venues hosting the seminar.

On Thursday, January 29, 2026 the Year 7 Ballad Festival took place. The German groups from all Year 7 classes presented a variety of ballads on stage. Among the performances were Pirate Jenny by Bertolt Brecht, The Glove by Friedrich Schiller, and John Maynard by Theodor Fontane. The presentations were varied and full of enthusiasm. Both students and teachers had a great time, and the festival was a big success.