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Australian Provincial Delegate for Education & Mission Formation Report to Assistancy Education Secretaries Dili, May 26-29, 2012

1. Context: A reminder that we have 5 Jesuit-owned schools in the Australian Province: 3 in Sydney (1 new school opening in October this year more information below), 1 in Melbourne, and 1 in Adelaide. Our school in Adelaide is fully coeducational from Kindergarten to Year 12 (the end of High School in the Australian system.) These schools care for 6300 students (approx) with 11.5 Jesuits involved (one of whom is a Junior School Chaplain and will be 100 years old in December!) We also have 5 Jesuit Partner Schools defined in the Jesuit Schools Commission Charter in these terms: In a desire to share in something of the Ignatian charism and pedagogy, these schools have sought an affiliation with the Jesuit Order through adopting Ignatian spirituality and/or pedagogy, sharing of programmes and resources, even occasionally being invited to join staff development. However, the Province takes no direct responsibility for school management or leadership. The Jesuit Schools Commission manages the relationship with the Province, including recommending acceptance of schools as partner schools. In approximate terms, this means another 5,500 students are part of the Ignatian tradition in Australian schools. Two of these five Partner schools have full-time Jesuit chaplains. This move to develop Partner Schools is in response to Provincial, Father Mark Rapers challenge in 2006: The first of our current Province Goals is: Build partnership for mission. This partnership for mission is reflected within our ministries and in partnership with others. We are convinced that collaboration is necessary for the fulfilment of our mission today. This means collaboration with laity, with diocesan clergy, with members of other religious congregations, and with all people of good will. It is not just a convenience forced on us by shrinking numbers. It is an essential dimension of the contemporary Jesuit way of proceeding, rooted in the realisation that to prepare our complex and divided world for the coming of the Kingdom requires a plurality of gifts, perspectives, and experiences GC 34, 550. 2. Jesuit Staffing in our Schools: This remains a concern for our Jesuit Heads and Rectors. For example, from our two biggest schools Riverview and Xavier we have lost two Jesuit Chaplains to other ministries in the past 12 months. There is a good deal of pain experienced here particularly in the challenge to our sacramental role in the schools. Tom Renshaw, Rector of Xavier, has to spread himself across three campuses and 2100 students with only partial help in the celebration of sacraments. 3. Ethos and Identity Review: After developing this instrument for two or three years, our Jesuit Schools Commission in 2011 completed Reviews in our 4 Jesuitowned schools. It was a highly successful experience for all concerned. There will be a workshop on this topic at Boston. Those participating in our Manila meeting last year received a copy of the Review Instrument. 4. Incorporation: With a view to protecting ourselves against possible cuts in Government funding, we have been exploring the possibilities of incorporating our schools. We have now gathered all the information from our Jesuit-owned schools

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concerning our various legal titles, together with Council Constitutions and associated Rules, and have provided Gadens Lawyers in Melbourne with these documents. We are awaiting their advice about whether they can see a way forward to incorporating our schools under one national title, together with outlining the advantages and disadvantages thereof. 5. New Jesuit School in East Timor: Two of our Jesuit Schools Commission, engineer Neville Harpham and educator Marie Emmitt (Dean of Education at the Australian Catholic University), together with Riverview architect, Peter Mayoh, have been giving great assistance to Father Mark Raper and the local Jesuits in preparing for the establishment of this new Jesuit school in Kasait, Dili. 6. New School: Redfern-Jarjum College: In 2008, the then Rector of St. Aloysius College, Father Ross Jones SJ, prepared a media release, part of which read: In response to the Provincials request that each of our schools establish an outreach of an educational nature to a disadvantaged community, St Aloysius College is currently exploring and developing a primary school in the Redfern community for aboriginal children who are currently missing out on a sound educational start in life. These children are, for many reasons, sporadic in their engagement in either local government or systemic schools. The model we propose adopting is the Nativity Schools which a number of American Jesuit Provinces have been developing in recent years in inner-urban American cities from which economically secure families and community services have been receding.. This new school has now been registered by the New South Wales Board of Studies, a new Principal (part-Aboriginal lady) has been appointed over a year ago, and building is well underway for an October beginning for some 20 students from very needy families. 7. Plans for implementing the multi-site 2012 Province Schools Ministry Conference are locking into place now, with nearly all 150 possible registrations completed and a good level of interest engendered across the country. Overall Objective: To establish Professional Learning Communities who will work initially, on a particular goal, create personal contact and establish ongoing support and communication across all Jesuit and partner schools. Aim: To develop relationships amongst the Jesuit and partner schools. To enliven Ignatian and Jesuit identity amongst our schools. To encourage shared responsibility for an education system that strongly reflects the characteristics of Jesuit education. To create an extended agenda Thursday 12th July Saturday 14th July 2012

Timing of Conference: Who is involved?

At least 2 representatives at each location from each of the schools. The hosting schools or cities may have the opportunity for more staff to be involved.

What is the focus of each learning community?

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Sustainability/Environment/Ecology Hosted by JXXIII, Perth input on the document Our Environmental Way of Proceeding and awareness of Reconciliation with Creation project of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific. focus develop an action plan for greater implementation of sustainable activities. Retreats/Immersions/Service Hosted by SAC, Milsons Point input on the contemplations of the Spiritual Exercises focus to integrate the contemplations into the programs. Formation for Mission and Identity Hosted by SIC, Adelaide input on Mission and Identity focus to develop a tools for student, staff and parent formation Co-curricular experiences Hosted by Xavier, Melbourne input on the latest thinking around co-curricular activities focus develop strategies that will deepen the co-curricular experience of our staff and students and ensure it is congruent with the characteristics of Jesuit education.

National Curriculum Hosted by SIC, Riverview input on depthing of thinking based on Fr General Adolfos challenges focus to work across faculty groups to develop greater thinking skills and extension programs in students aligned with National curriculum topic areas 8. Gonski Funding Review. There is general agreement that the recently published Report provides a theoretical framework and road map for the future the implications of which will take a good deal of time to unravel and elaborate. One wonders what support the Government will give to its recommendations, and whether it can afford to provide any or all of the additional $5 billion expenditure on education called for by the Gonski Committee. 9. Rector and Principal: There are still some role confusions here, although by and large, the combinations are working very well in practice in all 4 schools. While Gerry Healy did some work on this with a meeting of Rectors in 2009, the Heads and Rectors have asked me to do some more work teasing out and elaborating the nuances at each school. I have now had conversations (together) with the Rectors and Principals in all our 4 Jesuit-owned schools and it is seems like wrestling with a jelly fish. One of the challenges is that the four schools have structures which have evolved differently in different contexts and with different personalities. Another challenge is that, if we weaken the Principals role too much (in order to give more substance to the Rectors role) we might diminish the quality of good lay people in applying to be Headmaster/Principal in one of our schools. A delicate balancing act is needed to ensure that we retain the highest quality leadership in our Jesuit Rectors for the longer term, while ensuring that our Principals (lay or Jesuit) are the best possible educational and operational leaders we can find. 10. Meeting on Teaching Accreditation for Jesuit Scholastics Against the national background of accreditation requirements becoming stricter by the day such that the Diploma of Education will gradually disappear nationally to make way for an obligatory 2 year Masters in Teaching Degree for all aspiring

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teachers it has become increasingly clear that it is soon going to become significantly more difficult for Jesuit scholastics to do a meaningful teaching regency in one of our schools. Together with the normal demands of Philosophy and Theology studies for scholastics, we need to find ways in which they can do teaching accreditation studies through long summer vacations and winter intensives. If we dont find a solution here, it will mean our scholastics will be unable to do a full teaching regency without proper accreditation. 11. Sundries: After 18 years at St. Ignatius College, Riverview, (10 as Head of School and 8 as Deputy Head), Shane Hogan has resigned - to take effect at the end of March, 2013. We hope that Shanes successor will be equally supportive of Riverviews Advanced Teaching Program offered for the Assistancy in recent years (offered again in 2012, but declined because of heavy work programs leading up to the Boston Jesuit Education Conference in late July.) We are interested in the work of John 23 College in Perth with ACER (The Australian Council for Educational Research) on evaluating the effectiveness of the schools mission. Principal Anne Fry has reported the following during a recent telephone conversation on this topic: John 23 has amassed a huge amount of longitudinal data over the years, but has not made adequate use of this data as yet. There is a Ph.D. thesis in waiting here When Chair of J23 Council, Michael Cheney was very keen, from his experience in the corporate sector, to measure the schools effectiveness in achieving its Mission Statement. Hence J23s commissioning ACER to work with them in producing a measuring instrument In very general terms, Anne says the data has shown their graduates to be strong in achieving a sense of social justice, but depressingly weaker in their commitment to Jesus While John 23 has licensed other schools to use their ACER instrument, Anne believes that the Melbourne Archdioceses Enhancing Catholic School Identity Project which has been collaborating closely with the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium is more focused than their ACER project and might be a better pathway for us to follow. 12. New Zealand: We continue to support a group of lay people in New Zealand who have been striving since 1998 to begin an Ignatian School south of Auckland. While the Diocese has purchased the land, there are difficulties in finding the remainder of the start-up money needed.

Chris Gleeson SJ Province Delegate for Education & Mission Formation, May 24th, 2012