Spiritus LEAD

Phase Two

Implementation: Teacher and Student Formation

SPIRITUS LEAD Phase 2 involves school leaders planning, leading and evaluating the implementation of two high-impact change strategies. The high impact strategies are firstly, leading and facilitating the formation of other leaders and staff within their school. Secondly, teachers leading and supporting the formation of students for peer-to-peer youth ministry within the school. The SPIRITUS LEAD Project Team will support school leadership teams in this work. SPIRITUS LEAD Phase 2 includes additional formation, planning and annual review with school and system leaders.

Ongoing Leader Formation

  • Spiritus Part 3 - Leading Evangelisation

  • Formation as CLFN Leader of Evangelisation

  • Formed in Prayer

  • CLFN, Essentials for Faith Leadership

Staff Formation

  • Heart of Catholic School

  • CLFN Porta Fidei Retreat

  • CLFN Called Program

  • ACU Voices and Visions

Student Formation for Peer-to-Peer Ministry

  • Retreat/ Youth Ministry Experiences

  • Catechetical Pathway within RE Curriculum

  • Youth Ministry Teams

  • Engagement with broader Church

i. Staff formation for Mission

When planning for staff formation, it is essential to consider the diversity of the staff’s faith and life experience and relationship to the Church. Statistics from the NCEC in 2017 indicate that 80 per cent of Australian Catholic primary school teachers and 61 per cent of secondary school teachers identify as Catholic. About twenty-five per cent of these teachers who identify as Catholic regularly engage in a parish. For most staff, the Catholic school is their only regular experience of the life and mission of the Church. Michael Buchanan (2022), in Catholic Teacher Formation in the Land Downunder, suggests that as the first contact for faith for most staff, schools must be a context for teacher formation.

Teacher formation within a school can take many forms, implicit and explicit. It is implicit within a staff culture and community shaped by the quality of Christian witness and relationships. The explicit forms include activities such as staff prayer, staff retreats and school and system-wide formation programs. The CLFN is a crucial platform for delivering and resourcing staff formation within a system or school.

Staff formation programs within the school that can be implemented by school leaders include the following:

  • The Heart of the Catholic School (Available 2025), is a program in development for all staff in a Catholic school. It will focus on critical questions about the nature and purpose of a Catholic school combined with existential life and vocational questions. In this program, formation for mission will be presented as an essential dimension of Catholic school improvement, of efforts to renew and improve the school community, culture and curriculum. It will include a three-to-four-part video series similar in style to Called and Essentials for Faith Leaders. School leaders, with support from the SPIRITUS LEAD Project Team, will run this program for all staff. It will be a segway to other system-wide and school formation for mission programs.

  • Called can be offered to all staff and conducted in small groups, including early career teachers, middle school leaders and executive groups. Essentials for Faith Leaders is a follow-on program that can be conducted in school with executive and middle leaders.

  • Voices and Vision: Catholic Schools in Conversation is a resource that facilitates dialogue between those who work in Catholic school communities, helping them consider ways to bring to life the values proposed in the Church documents. It uses quotes, poems and prayers from various authors whose writings align with the themes and ideas in the documents and inspires the reader to interpret their meaning for their particular context.

  • A range of opportunities for retreat, including the Porta Fidei retreat experience.

The Forming Leaders Series Programs

These programs seek to renew, form and equip leaders, and aspiring leaders, as missionary evangelisers. They can vary in mode, location and duration.

Porta Fidei

Porta Fidei is a retreat experience for teachers consisting of testimonies, reflection and conversation in small groups, Eucharist and Reconciliation.

Called

At the heart of Called is the desire to increase participants’ understanding of discipleship. It provides videos of personal testimonies on six topics, and a range of discussion starters that guide personal reflection and small group activities.

Essentials

Essentials for Faith Leadership provides video presentations by leading Catholic leaders on ‘Evangelisation’, ‘Leading with Balance’, ‘Discernment’, ‘Humility’, ‘The First Proclamation’ and ‘Youth as Leaders in Evangelisation’. It offers a range of discussion starters that guide personal reflection and small group activities.

"Student faith formation occurs in and through various experiences across the life of the school… Faith formation is not an “add-on” or just one component of the formation process. For this reason, faith formation is at the heart of the mission of the Catholic school. Faith formation is a mysterious process; it can be perplexing, multifaceted and difficult to evaluate. Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit.”

(A Framework for Student Faith Formation in Catholic Schools, NCEC, 2022, pp. 10, 24)

ii. Student formation

A Framework for Student Faith Formation in Catholic Schools published by the Australian National Catholic Education Commission identified the following elements of student faith formation (pp.22-23)

  • Enabling witness and encounter with Jesus

  • Invitational

  • Individual and communal

  • Relational and accompanying

  • Integrated with family and parish

  • Drawing upon a rich Catholic tradition

  • Dialogical and inclusive

  • Religious and spiritual

  • Discerning and vocational

  • Justice and service oriented

  • Differentiated and ongoing

  • Intentional and planned

A Vision and Model of Youth Ministry

SPIRITUS LEAD involves developing an integrated model of youth ministry within a school, such as the one underpinning Catholic Schools Youth Ministry International.

The CSYMI Model is built on an evangelisation process consisting of witness, proclamation, conversion, discipleship, community and mission outreach.

Events

Events can play a significant role in the faith journey of young people. The impact of regional, diocesan, national and international events such as the Australian Catholic Youth Festival and World Youth Day and have been well expressed in the testimonials of countless Catholic young people.

CSYMI retreat programs and events for students include Journeying with Jesus, Catch the Wave, SHINE, ILLUMINATE and LEAD.

iii. Post School Youth Ministers

The CSYMI Youth Ministers Network is a network that forms, equips and resources post-school youth ministers engaged in a year of mission whilst actively participating in the life of the Catholic Church. Youth ministers are engaged in a local placement, on a part-time or full-time basis, within schools and/or parishes. Youth ministers support the implementation of the CSYMI youth ministry model in schools. They can also help develop parish-based youth ministry and build pathways for young people to engage with the broader Church. The ACU-accredited Signum Fidei program is incorporated within the Youth Ministers Network formation and mission pathway.