With Christ at our side to guide us,
we shine in all that we do.

Key to Life Foodbank Assembly

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Our Mini Vinnies Leadership Team led an assembly this week to share their learning about the Key Project in South Tyneside. They explained that helping to feed families in our local area helps us to live out our school mission. They spoke about our Catholic Social Teaching principles and explained that we can show solidarity to the poor and vulnerable in our local area by sharing what we have with them. The children appealed to their friends for donations towards our Harvest Foodbank Appeal.

Key to Life Foodbank

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Our Mini Vinnies have been learning about the good work of the Key Project in South Tyneside. The project is made up of a team of around 40 dedicated volunteers who give their time to help the poor and vulnerable in our local area. The project has recently seen a 310% increase in the number of referrals and are now feeding over 16,000 local people every year.

We set up a ‘Donation Station’ in our school reception and have appealed to our school community to donate tinned and dry food to help support local people. The children made informative posters to be displayed around our school to inspire people to give what they can to help the poor and vulnerable.

Exploring Our New Sensory Space

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In Eco Club this week, we spent time in our new sensory garden, a special space filled with herbs and flowers of many colours, textures and scents. Surrounded by the beauty of nature, we reflected on how spending time outdoors can help our mental health and wellbeing. We were reminded that God created a wonderful world for us to enjoy, and that noticing these small but special gifts helps us feel calm, grateful and close to Him.

We explored the different plants by gently rubbing the leaves to smell their unique scents and shared which colours, scents and textures we enjoyed the most.

We reflected on how nature helps us to feel calm, peaceful and thankful to God. We thought about ways we can use the garden to pause, pray and appreciate God’s creation.

Big Beach Clean Up 2025

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As part of our Plastic Pollution Project, children from Eco Club and the Mini Vinnies worked together to care for God’s creation by taking part in a litter pick around our local beaches. After learning about the harmful effects of plastic pollution, we were inspired to take action and make a positive difference. Our mission was to prevent as much litter as possible from entering our seas.

We invited Lydia from the Waste and Recycling Visitor and Education Centre to lead the event. The children learnt all about the impact of plastic pollution on local wildlife and the negative effect it has on the environment. They kept a tally of the different materials they found scattered along our  beaches and worked out that the most common pollutant in our area was plastic waste.  The children explored the importance of recycling and properly disposing of waste.

In our Jubilee Year of Hope, we are proud to be working together as stewards of God’s creation, and we hope our efforts encourage others to join in protecting and preserving our beautiful planet.

Planting in Our New Garden

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As part of our call to care for God’s creation, inspired by Laudato Si’, we planted colourful flowers in our new garden planters. By planting and caring for our flowers, we are helping to make our school environment more beautiful for everyone to enjoy. We hope they will inspire our school community to notice and appreciate the wonder of God’s creation all around us.

We learned how caring for nature is part of our mission as Stewards of God’s Earth. Stewardship reminds us that God has entrusted the Earth to us, and we must look after it with love and responsibility.

We built our gardening skills by preparing the soil in our new garden planters and planting bright, colourful flowers. We certainly found plenty of worms along the way!

 

Laudato Si’ 10th Anniversary

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Laudato Si’ is Pope Francis’ special letter to everyone on our planet, reminding us that God created our wonderful common home and we all share the responsibility to care for it. He encouraged us to notice the beauty of creation, to protect the environment, and to treat each other with kindness, fairness and respect.
Ten years on, his message continues to inspire children and adults across the world to make choices that look after the world and our global neighbours.

We watched CAFOD’s Laudato Si’ animation to remind ourselves of Pope Francis’ message and shared our thoughts on how the letter has made a difference over the last 10 years.

We wrote postcards to Pope Francis to thank him for his guidance. We explained how his teachings have inspired our actions at school and at home.

Turning Action into Concern (Do)

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This week, the Mini Vinnies learnt all about the good work of the St Vincent de Paul Society in England and Wales.

Inspired by the life of St Vincent de Paul, the SVP help the poor and vulnerable by:
• Providing help with money
• Helping with transport
• Providing food
• Offering friendship and support
• Raising money for those in need
• Supporting migrants, refugees or people seeking asylum
• Supporting ex-offenders or people in prison
• Helping the sick and their families

We shared our ideas about what we could do to help our local adult SVP group.

Following in Jesus’ Footsteps (Think)

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We revisited the map of our community that we made in our last meeting. It was now time to think about who might need help in each of the places we identified, and talk about what Jesus would do if he were here today in person.

Some of the children read the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet as today’s reflection – John 13: 1-20.

We are showing Jesus to others in the acts of kindness we do. We are walking in the footsteps of Christ.

Starting the Mission (See)

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As Mini Vinnies, we might never know what impact our small actions have on those we are helping. We read Roberta’s story to hear just one example of how our small actions can make a big difference to someone else’s life.

In groups, we created large maps of our local area and then identified five places where people might need our help. We discussed what their need might be and drew a mind map that we will use to plan our activities for the year.

© 2025 Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust.