“Experienced Teachers to Manage Ursulinen Schools in Werl After Unbundling in 2023/2024”

Two experienced teachers of many years at the Ursulinen schools in Werl will take over the management of the schools that will be unbundled again from the 2023/2024 school year: Konrad Beckmann will be the head of the future Ursulinengymnasium Werl and Andrea Frölich the head of the future Ursulinenrealschule Werl. After unbundling, both the Realschule and the Gymnasium will continue to be run by the St.-Ursula-Stift Werl as separate school types and will be run as Catholic substitute schools with their own profile. “We are delighted that Konrad Beckmann is taking over the management of the grammar school and Andrea Frölich the management of the secondary school. Their many years of experience are valuable for the new, separate school administration of ‘their schools’,” emphasize Domprovost Monsignor Joachim Göbel and Deacon Christian Majer-Leonhard from the school and university department in the Archbishop’s Vicariate General Paderborn.

After the Archdiocese of Paderborn informed in June 2022 that the Ursuline schools in Werl, which were funded by the St. Ursula monastery in Werl and were created ten years ago by bundling the Realschule and Gymnasium, will be unbundled again for administrative organizational reasons, it was announced in February 2023 that for the New schools are each looking for a manager, since the previous headmistress of the bundle school, Anne-Kristin Brunn, is taking on a new job. Ursulinenrealschule and Ursulinengymnasium will continue to work closely together in the future and the pupils can continue to benefit from the cooperation and permeability at the Werl school location.

Head of the new Ursulinengymnasium

Konrad Beckmann has been teaching mathematics and French at the Ursuline schools in Werl since 2002. At the Ursulinengymnasium, Beckmann worked as a liaison teacher for the student representatives and on the staff council. Konrad Beckmann took over the position of deputy headmaster in 2011. From 2013, Beckmann was also the deputy headmaster of the newly established bundle school as department head at the high school.

After studying in Göttingen and spending time abroad in France, Konrad Beckmann returned to his homeland: he lives with his family on a farm near Soest. The new headmaster sees digitization and teaching development as tasks for the Ursulinengymnasium in the next few years, as well as expanding the MINT profile and the arts area, but also maintaining international exchanges. Konrad Beckmann refers to the “strong tradition” of the Ursulinengymnasium: “The languages ​​and the arts education in particular have been traditional strengths of the Ursulinenschule for 135 years,” emphasizes Headmaster Beckmann. The new head of the Ursulinengymnasium also sees the Ursulinenschulen as part of the pastoral landscape in Werl and in the Archdiocese of Paderborn.

Head of the Ursulinenrealschule Werl

Andrea Frölich has been teaching German, biology and geography at the Ursulinenrealschule Werl since 2003. Before being appointed department head at the Realschule, she was involved in the teachers’ and staff councils of the Ursuline schools.

Andrea Frölich completed her studies in Münster and now lives in her hometown of Hamm with her husband and three children. “A good learning environment in which the children and young people can recognize their strengths and develop their personality is just as important to me as the teaching of skills and abilities to prepare the students for life,” emphasizes Andrea Frölich. The Ursuline tradition with attention to the students is important to her, “it offers orientation and a Christian foundation”.

Cooperation between the management of the Gymnasium and Realschule

Andrea Frölich and Konrad Beckmann have been working together in various committees for 20 years and see the further cooperation between the two schools as an important element of their future work – as head of the Realschule and as head of the Gymnasium. Both school directors underline the character of the two Ursuline schools as a Christian community and as an open and committed place in dialogue with society.

Ursulinen schools: Ursulinengymnasium and Ursulinenrealschule Werl

1,200 pupils attend the Ursuline Schools every day, 650 of them at the Gymnasium and 550 at the Realschule. The Ursuline schools are usually 6-stream in each grade, i.e. three classes each at the Gymnasium and at the Realschule, in each grade with an average of 28 to 29 students. The learners are taught by 85 teachers. Seven trainee teachers work at the Ursuline Schools. There are also three secretaries, two janitors and two school social workers.

Background: bundling / unbundling

Since 2013, the Ursuline schools in Werl have been run as a so-called bundle school. This means that the two school types Realschule and Gymnasium together form an administrative organizational unit. An evaluation carried out in the meantime showed that the associated streamlining of the administration at the schools made it more difficult for the teachers to work at both schools with specific pedagogical content. After a critical evaluation, it was found that the Ursuline idea of ​​education and upbringing of young people, as anchored in the school program, would be better realized by two independent schools. This is served by the unbundling, with which Realschule and Gymnasium will be run as separate school types from the 2023/2024 school year.