The Jesuit European Committee for Secondary Education brings together Jesuit secondary schools across Europe, fostering collaboration, shared vision, and innovation in education. As part of the broader mission of the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials, JECSE plays a key role in strengthening the Jesuit educational apostolate, ensuring that schools remain places where academic excellence and human formation go hand in hand, and allowing them to have an actual European stance --  a key level given the influence of the European Union in Education – beyond the particular provinces and a voice in a more globalized educational reality.

At the heart of this mission lies JECSE’s Ignatian Leadership Programme, an initiative designed to form school leaders—both Jesuit and lay—in the spirit of Ignatian pedagogy. Rooted in discernment, service, and reflection, the programme equips participants with the tools to lead institutions in a way that is both professionally effective and deeply aligned with Jesuit values. JECSE reports us about the beginning of another edition of the Ignatian Leadership Programme.

13 school leaders from 9 different countries travelled to Portugal in early March, to begin their JECSE Ignatian Leadership Programme (ILP). This first module (of three) took place over a week in the beautiful coastal setting of Rodizio. The course was facilitated by Ms Agnieszka Baran (JECSE director), Mr Paul Yperman, Mr Brian Flannery and Fr Bart Van Emmerik SJ who were ably assisted by Débora Duarte from the JECSE office working on logistics. 

As the various groupings of participants arrived and were collected from the airport excitement and anticipation of what lay ahead began to build. For those of us that arrived early in the first group, we got to see what Rodizio had to offer, with a walk of the surrounding area, including along the beach. 

The full group met at 6pm on Monday 9th of March with a tour of the house, dinner and our first introductory session. It was really interesting to learn about other people’s contexts and school settings. Later we had our first ‘social’ session, where participants we invited to bring a sample of food or drink from their country. We enjoyed everything from Albania biscuits, Italian Cannoli and Polish sausage to a local Portuguese wine, Belgian beer and Irish whiskey. 

Tuesday morning began early for some with the optional walk along the beach led by Bart at 7:30am. After breakfast we had 4 working sessions on Leadership and Self-Assessment, Managing our inner states, Communication and Examen in Leadership and Discernment, as well as our first ‘small group’ reflection and mass. A busy day left everyone tired and with a lot to think about. The fatigue was however lifted again at our 2nd social gathering. 

On Wednesday morning, after an even earlier beach walk for some, we discussed Power and Roles and Emotional and Social Intelligence followed by further small group reflections. That afternoon, we were brought to the beautiful city of Sintra and we took a guided tour of Palacio da Pena – a must on any visitors to-do list! We enjoyed some local cuisine followed by the traditional ILP dinner round of speeches. 

Thursday’s focus was around communal discernment as well as personal and group reflections. We also look looked at working in teams and conflict management. 

This was followed by an interview by Brian Flannery with Fr Lourenco Eiro SJ, a veteran of the ILP programme and currently the director of the Jesuit Youth Centre in Lisbon. The group would unanimously agree that his story and his journey were truly inspiring and added great depth to the reflections that followed. After mass, celebrated by Fr Eiro, we prepared for our final social and attempted to get through the remaining bounty of international delicacies. 

On Friday morning we drew the threads together on all that we have explored over the past week, and while exhausted, we also felt uplifted. The various travel groups made their way to the airport, and thankfully everyone reached their destinations without complication.

A key feature of the week was the opportunity for participants to work in smaller groups, allowing for deeper discernment and more personal sharing. These groups will continue to meet online in advance of the second module in October.. 

Overall, the week-long module 1 of the ILP was a truly enriching experience, and one that will certainly stick with us. We cannot wait for everyone to meet up again for Module 2 in Krakow next October. 

We’d like to offer a huge thank you to the organisers and facilitators of the course and also to our fellow participants for accompanying us on this journey.