This week in Mini Vinnies, we made special Christmas cards for elderly parishioners at St Bede’s Church. We talked about how some older people can feel lonely, especially at Christmas, and why it is important to reach out with kindness and love. By doing this, we followed Jesus’ example of caring for others and lived out the Mini Vinnies’ mission of service and compassion.

We painted Nativity silhouettes to remind everyone of the true meaning of Christmas. Our cards brought joy and comfort to the parishioners and helped us show care, solidarity and friendship within our community.

World Kindness Day is a special day that reminds everyone to show caring actions and treat others with respect. It encourages us to spread kindness through small, thoughtful deeds that help make the world a happier place.

In Mini Vinnies, we learnt that kindness means showing care, respect, and thoughtfulness to others. We talked about how small actions – like helping someone, sharing, or using kind words – can make a big difference. We also discovered that being kind helps make our school and our world happier, safer, and better for everyone. Showing kindness to others links to our Catholic Social Teaching principle, solidarity (showing others that we care about them).

The Mini Vinnies set to work creating a kindness challenge game that they could share with their friends and families. Each child challenged their friends to complete an act of kindness. The children gave out special kindness stickers to anyone who completed an act of kindness on the day.

BBC Children in Need is a charity started by the BBC in 1980, which raises money to help make a difference to children who need some support. People across the country raise money for the charity every November.

BBC Children in Need support children who might:
• have a disability;
• have a life-changing illness;
• live in poverty;
• be separated from their family;
• care for someone in their family.

In Mini Vinnies, we talked about the things that we might take for granted that other children may not have. We discussed how helping those in need is an important part of who we are as Christians and that by doing this, we are following in the footsteps of Jesus.

We teamed up with children from Year 6 to bake lots of tasty baked goods to sell at our annual Bake Sale in aid of BBC Children in Need. We sold raffle tickets to our friends and gave away some great Pudsey-themed prizes. The children had a wonderful time at our Bake Sale and enjoyed lots of Pudsey activities throughout the day.

Together, we raised over £350 to support BBC Children in Need!

Thank you to all of our families and parishioners for your kind donations to our Harvest Foodbank Appeal to support the Key to Life Project. Together, we have collected 351 items to support local people in need! Our Mini Vinnies are so proud to be helping to feed people in our local area.

We have decided to keep our ‘Donation Station’ open all year round and we hope to make many more donations to The Project throughout the year!

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.

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.

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.

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.