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As a Province, we are able to draw on the existing strength of resources and staff training models for Jesuit Schools, built on numerous documents produced by the global Society of Jesus during recent decades and the previous work by Adrian Porter SJ and Maria Neal to support the induction and training of staff, governors and chaplains in the Jesuit Schools of the British Province.
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Firstly, this role brings someone solely dedicated to staff formation into the workplace. This means staff will have access to Ignatian spiritual development, induction and formation materials and support in a bespoke timeframe that works with the school and meets the needs of different staff.
Secondly, the Schools Ignatian Formators will support and guide school leadership with Discernment in Common and spiritual conversation to encourage the spirit of Ignatian discernment in the future direction of the schools.
Thirdly, they will provide a more direct link between the Jesuit Schools and the wider Jesuit Institute team, who work in other areas such as parishes and dioceses, online and in universities and prisons, offering a mixture of bespoke and programmed work.
For a Jesuit School where cura personalis is central to the ethos, the importance of having a staff body rooted in an Ignatian way of being is fundamental to breathing life into our educational charism and tradition. In response to consultations with headteachers, school chaplains, and the Jesuit Institute, we have developed a regional structure of formators, thereby bringing formation directly into schools.
Our response to the changing needs within education has been a typically Jesuit one: both courageous and pioneering within the context of the Catholic Education landscape in the UK. As a team of five, we can offer Inset, support, retreats and training within Catholic Multi-Academy Trusts, working with Catholic Dioceses. There is a real appetite for formation in Catholic schools, and we are ready to meet this call, bringing Ignatian spirituality to a wider educational audience.
(Maria Neal, Jesuit Institute Schools Officer)
As well as preparing for the new school year starting this autumn, the new team are being inducted into working in the Province and in the various schools themselves. Damien will be working in the schools of the Ribble Valley (Stonyhurst College, St Mary’s Hall, and St Joseph’s Primary School), Roderick will be in St Aloysius College in Glasgow as well as its junior school and Nelle will be dividing her time between the three Jesuit schools – St Ignatius College Enfield, Wimbledon College, and Donhead Preparatory School – in London. They will also be undertaking the Spiritual Exercises in order to prepare them for their new roles. We wish them every blessing in their new mission.
Paul Nicholson SJ, Director of the Jesuit Institute
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