"This is like Grey's Anatomy!" The visit to the BBG Berliner Bildungscampus für Gesundheitsberufe gGmbH (link: https://www.bildungscampus-berlin.de/ ) on June 22, 2024 made a big impression on the IB Biology course! Future surgical assistants (OTAs) are trained in original operating theaters on the grounds of Vivantes Neukölln Hospital in practical teaching units. Our students were able to gain a compact insight into everyday school and work life in four hours.

At the beginning, all the participants were "smuggled" into the operating theater, i.e. their everyday clothes were exchanged for the green scrubs with hoods.  After an initial overview of the occupational field and the day's program, hand hygiene was on the agenda. "Disinfecting your hands correctly can save lives, as most infections in hospitals (nosocomial infections) are transmitted via this route," says Maik Jelinski, medical educator and teacher at the BBG. And so that the result could be checked, the disinfected hands were held under a black light lamp to show any gaps in wetting, oha, some places were forgotten!

For the Nelson Mandela School, 5 June 2024 will be remembered as a historic event: For the first time since the school was founded in 2000, a school senator will visit our school. Senator Günther-Wünsch, herself a former deputy headmistress and at times a specialist teacher in Namibia and South Africa, was accompanied by her State Secretary for Education of the State of Berlin, Christina Henke, as well as Sandra Khalatbari, Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the Committee for Education, Youth and Family Affairs, who has a special connection to our school as a former member of the General Parents' Council, and the Head of Department of Centrally Administered Schools, Grit Orgis.

Ninety minutes of lessons pass quickly, as did the eventful day with our political guests, which began with a lively exchange on educational policy issues with representatives of the school management, the committees and the student representatives of the NMS. The Senator focussed in particular on the concerns of our pupils.

We cordially invite you to our music evening on June 27th 2024 at 6:00 pm in the Aula. On this evening, the NMS-PopChoir and the school orchestra will present a colorful program of classical, a capella and pop music. We look forward to spending a musical time with you and presenting the results of our rehearsal week.  

A special event took place at our school on 5 June 2024: The Berlin author Bov Bjerg read from his novel ‘Auerhaus’. All 10th graders took part in the reading and were very interested in the lively reading and the themes of the book.

After the reading, the pupils had the opportunity to ask the author various questions. The topics ranged from specific aspects of the novel to personal questions about Bov Bjerg's life and career.

The pupils were given fascinating insights into the author's creative process and the background to

‘Auerhaus’.

We would like to thank Bov Bjerg for his visit and the inspiring reading.

It started on June 9th at 7:00 a.m.: 7 students from the politics course marked polling station 122 in Steglitz, set up voting booths and hung up flags. From 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., our team verified 519 voter credentials and handed out ballots. During the count (see picture) it turned out that not all of them were valid and some contained curiosities. At around 8:00 p.m. we were able to submit the final result and were pleased with the mathematically perfect results. Many thanks to the volunteers for taking on this position!

On June 4, 2024, the Geography GK's Q2 and the LK Q2 visited the European House in Berlin with Ms Wandtke & Ms Müller. In an inspiring lecture followed by a discussion, Frenchwoman Claire reaffirmed the importance of the EU in securing peace in Europe, the benefits of the EU for every citizen of an EU country and the importance of a democratic process in decision-making within the EU. She made it clear that voting in the European elections on 9 June 2024 will determine the future political direction of the European Parliament and that every voter should be aware of this responsibility. The pupils were later able to answer the questions in the Wahl-O-Mat and take a stand in the ‘Experience Europe’ exhibition.

Our call to all: Use your vote on 9 June 2024.

A. Müller & F. Wandtke

From May, 2  to May, 31, 2024 the interactive poster exhibition on the climate crisis was a guest at the NMS P30. The exhibition was created by pupils from the Max Planck School in Kiel with scientific support from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Many pupils from our school from Y7-Y12 were able to visit the exhibition this week, mostly as part of their geography lessons, and activate and consolidate their knowledge of the climate crisis. It became clear to everyone that it is important to act now. Climate protection is a task that concerns us all and that we can only achieve together!   

Climate Action Now- A Race We Must Win.                  

Anke Müller & Department of Geography & the LK Geography Q2

On Monday, 3 June 2020, a group of students from Tallinna Saksa Gümnaasium in Estonia came to class 11b's German lesson to talk to our students about school, everyday life, future prospects, the impact of the war in Ukraine and other topics. The meeting came about spontaneously when some of our teachers visited the Tallinn secondary school in October 2023 as part of an Erasmus+ Workshop on digitalisation.

We will definitely continue to maintain this very nice contact!           

We did it! Class 7a worked for a long time and with great attention to detail to complete the Nelson Mandela exhibition! All 7a- students are very proud of their work- deservedly so! We wrote the texts during our English lessons as part of the topic (auto)biographies. We would like to thank Tara McCarthy (Year 11), who visits our English lessons every Tuesday and patiently supported the students in revising their texts.

The banner, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, according to the title of Mandela’s autobiography which now is hanging in the foyer and in front of the secretary's office, was painted during our English class as well. You can see patterns which are inspired by the South African Ndebele art, are painted with fabric paint, and then printed with the corresponding letters. Anyone standing in the foyer can now read: A Long Walk To... and then must walk a little way to the corridor leading to the secretary’s office to complete the title...FREEDOM. This walk symbolizes the long way Nelson Mandela had to walk to lead his country to freedom. At the same time, it is representative of the path we travel every day as an international school community.

Finally, I would like to particularly thank Ines Britze and Detlef Wingerath for their huge support in organizing materials, completing and installing the exhibition! Thank you so much!

Enjoy your visit to our exhibition. Stayin front of each exhibit and read what our 7a pupils have written about Mandela's life.

Sincerely,

Constance Velazquez ( homeroom teacher, 7a)

On May 22, the NMS PopChoir presented a short program in front of a sold-out audience in the Kammermusiksaal of the Philharmonie Berlin. As part of the Musische Wochen event, which was organized by the SenBJF, various school ensembles perform every year. We really enjoyed the performance and it was impressive to sing in front of such a large audience for the first time. 

This year's Europa-Kiezfest on May 25, 2024, at Leon-Jessel-Platz in Berlin-Wilmersdorf takes place two weeks before the European elections under the motto "Strengthen Europe – Vote Europe". In this spirit, students from the Nelson Mandela School have engaged on-site with a "Game Lab Europe" focused on democracy and extremism prevention. Using three computer games, they engaged festival visitors in discussions about politics, democratic values, right-wing extremism, and fake news.

In a preparatory workshop, students from class 10c and the WPU art course 11abc of the Nelson Mandela School worked with three free "serious games" which they presented at the Europa-Kiezfest:

1. "Wie entscheidest du?": This game is a playful alternative to the Wahl-O-Mat, helping players make political decisions.
2. "KonterBUNT": In this game, players learn how to counter common prejudices and discriminatory remarks.
3. "Harmony Square": This game raises awareness about various manipulation techniques used in social media.

Festival visitors tried out the games under the guidance of the students, either on their own devices or on school laptops in the school's tiny house. The project was led by Detlef Wingerath, Nati Schneider, and Sainza Fernandez, along with Jakob Saß (historian and game expert). The project is funded by the Democracy Office Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, in collaboration with "Miteinander im Kiez" and the friends of Nelson Mandela School.

We, Lynda Sylvester, Tobias Sadrowski, Kai Linke and Felix Theuner, are currently on our Erasmus+ exchange in Ankara to observe lessons and get to know the school system here. Our hosts have put together an extensive, varied and very interesting program for us, during which we are visiting state and private schools and kindergartens in the city. 

We would like to share our observations and thoughts with you in the Padlet.