Who'll rule the school?

Article by Deidre 10b (15.09.2026)

With the school speaker election approaching, students will soon have to decide who they want to represent them in the upcoming school year. The person you vote for depends on what you think is important for the school and who you believe will do the most good for the student body. This year's candidates have already shared their ideas for how the school could be improved.

The nine candidates have put forward a range of priorities, from making the phone policy more flexible to making students more aware of the clubs our school has to offer.

Nikolas

Nikolas is in IB-13 and his main goal is to bring the different grades closer together by improving communication and encouraging more interaction between upper and lower secondary. His approach was straightforward: he believes stronger connections between the grades can be built through programs that already exist, like the school’s tutoring program.Herr Fraikin asks upper secondary students if they are willing to offer free tutoring for the lower secondary. However, Nikolas believes that many students are unaware that the program exists. He wants to make the tutoring program more visible while also expanding it so that more students can benefit from it. Additionally, he would like to make student council meetings more consistent, by implementing them regularly every two weeks. He also proposed a system where only one game can be played on the court at a time so that there are no interferences or conflicts between games. Furthermore, he wants to make the phone policy more lenient for all students, as 16 of 20 phones taken away from students were upper secondary, believing that the teachers are stricter on the older students than the younger ones. One of his main ideas was inspired from when he lived abroad in Japan. The idea was to regularly have meetings between club leaders to discuss issues and what was discussed would then be forwarded to the school speaker committee.

Liam

He’s been at the NMIS since the 1st grade and he wants to “leave it better than [he] found it”. Liam believes that communication between the grades is important, and hopes to make the courtyard a more enjoyable place for students by introducing equipment that students would actually use and enjoy. He would also like to increase the number of clubs available to students, while making school activities and events more visible. Another one of his ideas was to create an Instagram account for The Buzz, which he believes could make school events more appealing and accessible to students. His last point was that because we have the phone policy, we are more reliant on the school computers, so his idea was to not only get working computers, but better wifi for them to actually work.

Ivan

Ivan took charge at the end of last year when he decided to interview the previous school speakers so that he could figure out where the school speakers left off and what could realistically be done in the upcoming school year. What he found out was that almost every school speaker agreed that there was not enough communication between the grades. Those conversations shaped his approach to the election: rather than making ambitious promises, he wanted to focus on what he believes can realistically be achieved.He plans on listening to students’ suggestions and criticism because he believes that “criticism does not mean anyone did anything wrong.” He conducted a survey, in which 85 percent of students were unaware of all the clubs the school offers. He had the idea to have a wall dedicated to only have posters of all the different after school clubs that students can get to. He doesn’t plan on changing the phone policy but had the idea to have two or three dedicated spots where phones are allowed so that students can look at their phones for their schedules.

Elvis

This year is Elvis’s third year of running for school speaker because he believes that if he doesn't give up he can do something good for this school. Reflecting on the past year, he said, “the promises made by the last school speakers didn’t happen.” His promises are that he wants to organise more sports clubs and add water fountains to the school hallways. When asked how he would proceed with the idea of water fountains, he gave a well thought out plan on how to implement this idea. He stated that “if it doesn’t work this year, I have next year to try again” . His last idea was to add a sign up sheet to the courtyard so that multiple sports aren't played at the same time. His main agenda is to organize meetings between club leaders to give clubs the support they need through the help of teachers. He believes student bonds can be made stronger through competitions.

Phillip

He initially signed up as a joke, but his perspective changed while writing his speech and reflected that “middle school years are the best years of your life and it goes by too quickly” arguing that students can become so focused on their grades that they forget to enjoy their time at school. He said it's about growing together. He also wanted to make the phone policy more flexible, for example, when it comes to pick up. Many students have ended early and had to wait until a certain time to pick up their phones. Rather than removing the phone policy altogether. Instead of promising ideas to students that are unrealistic to fund, his goals are to make students more aware of clubs and make the policy more comfortable for everyone

Killian

Killian is in the 11c and his main goal is to make the school better. “Its about how you want the school to change,” he said. He had two main priorities: improving the conditions and atmosphere of the bathrooms and making sure all the bathrooms are usable. His second point was that meaningful change can not come from the school speakers alone. According to Killian, students themselves also have a role to play in improving the school.

Vinayak

Vin is in IB12 and decided to not have a speech prepared when he went up stage. He thought it is more important to talk to the students instead of reading to them. Instead, he wanted to "make NMIS a better place again" and presented “the four pillars of commitment” he would promise the school; the first being how he wanted the phone policy to be more flexible, his second pillar was to have an anti-vandalism policy in the bathroom. Third, he stated that he wants to bring students together by having at least 2 sports competitions per semester, this way students from different grades can connect through non-school related activities in a way to relax from school and get to know each other. His last pillar was to fix the school internet, as people in the upper secondary who have important exams need to be able to study with devices, and with a weak internet connection, that can be very difficult to do. He believes he could be a good school speaker because he already has a lot of leadership experience, as he has been in the Student Council for one year, and in his old school he was head boy for a year along with being a prefect for two.

Julie

This is Julie's second year in a row running for school speakers she was raised to never give up. She wants students to feel that they can approach her with questions or if they have anything on their minds. She didn’t make the same promises as everyone else, instead she focused on thinking outside the box. She, just like the other candidates, would like the school yard to be more enjoyable but instead of focusing on the basketball-football-volleyball court, she thought about the other parts of the schoolyard and wanted to form a team of people who would care and tend to the garden and flowers. She also wants to organise a first-aid course workshop for all the classes, because she believes it is an important course to know and understand in case of emergency. Her main priority was to put everybody else first, and she belives that nothing is impossible.

Ayman

Ayman was unfortunately not able to give her speech to the lower secondary but she has taken charge by trying to visit as many classes as possible to introduce herself. She believes that classes can bond better through events like Festival of Nations, sports and music competitions. Her ideas to give the NMIS a more relaxing atmosphere, she plans to approach the idea of 1 on 1 tutoring, a movie night in the aula and opening the kitchen in the break for students to use. Regarding the phone policy, Aymen believes that having dedicated spots where phones are allowed is the way to go. Upper secondary students are allowed to use their phones in the Neubau for school-related purposes, but she would like to add places in the Altbau where phones can be used too, as most students don’t want to go to another building to check their phones. She wants to implement a similar system for the lower secondary, where students are allowed to check their phones without it getting confiscated. An area she had suggested was the Foyer, as most of the day there are teachers waiting and could monitor the use of the phones.

While many of the candidates share similar concerns about some issues, their proposed solutions have come from different perspectives.

The phone policy, for example, was mentioned by several candidates, but their approaches range from making the policy more flexible to creating designated areas where phones could be used. The courtyard was another common topic, with candidates proposing different ways to make the space more enjoyable and prevent conflicts between sports.

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