With Christ at our side to guide us,
we shine in all that we do.
On May 1st, we held our May Procession in honour of Mary. The Mini Vinnies led the celebration, with children from each class bringing flowers to place in the vases on the focal point dedicated to Mary. The children shared a reading, prayers, a litany, sang some beautiful hymns, and one of the children crowned Mary with a lovely garland of flowers.
The Mini Vinnies enjoyed an Upcycling Bunting event on Tuesday when they were visited by Laura from the Waste & Recycling Education Centre. This year is the 10th anniversary of the Visitor Education Centre opening and 10 years since household waste has been recycled and not sent to landfill.
The children learnt about the work of the Waste & Recycling Centre and got to reuse some material themselves when Laura brought in squares of fabric to decorate with other scrap fabric pieces to make some beautiful, coloured bunting. This will be displayed at the anniversary event in June.
Here they are making their creations:
The Mini Vinnies hosted a coffee morning today after Palm Sunday Mass.
There was a Tombola stall, a delicious Cale Sale and the Mini Vinnies sold bookmarks they’d made as well as Stations of the Cross booklets in which they’d produced the beautiful artwork.
The Mini Vinnies were brilliant and the morning was a huge success – they raised £166.57 for the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Everyone had a fantastic day! Well done Mini Vinnies and a big thank you to the parents and staff who supported the event too!
On Friday 23rd February it was CAFOD Family Fast Day. St Bede’s families showed their commitment to helping people in the local community and further afield, by generously supporting our Lenten appeal to help us help those less fortunate than ourselves.
Children donated tins of food to the Key to Life Foodbank (an operation providing emergency food and support to people in crisis across South Tyneside) as well as donating money to CAFOD (Catholic Aid for Overseas Development), one of the largest networks in the world, helping some of the poorest and marginalised people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
We collected over £50 in monetary donations and a wealth of food products for the Key to Life Foodbank. As you can see by the photographs of our Mini Vinnies with our food donations, together we make a huge difference!
The Mini Vinnies hosted their first coffee morning today after Mass. The children made some delicious cakes and brought in some great prizes for the Tombola stall.
After setting up the church hall in preparation for the coffee morning, the Mini Vinnies attended Mass and then were put to work! The morning was a huge success, with the Mini Vinnies raising £134.42 towards repairs for the church roof.
Everyone had a fantastic day and Fr Bill was thrilled with the money raised! Well done Mini Vinnies!!!
In the Autumn term, we asked for children to volunteer to become Mini Vinnies. We were astounded by the huge number of applications received from our KS2 children. It was so difficult to choose between the thoughtful applications of those children wanting to make a difference in their community, so, with over 40 applications, we decided to run 2 Mini Vinnies’ groups. Here they are being commissioned today.
The Mini Vinnies made Christmas cards for people in the parish.
The Mini Vinnies were fantastic in their new roles with the Year 4 Mini Vinnies leading the Pudsey Bear raffle. Here they are with the lucky winners!
Today, our first group of Mini Vinnies ran our Children in Need Cake Sale. The yummy treats were provided by our Year 6 children and their families. Thank you so much, they were delicious!
The Mini Vinnies have been collecting donations for the South Shields KeyProject and were overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of St Bede’s children and their families.
A huge thank you to everyone for your wonderful donations! These will make a huge difference to a lot of people!
The Year 6 Mini Vinnies excelled themselves with their first fundraiser of the school year – the Go Green for CAFOD Bake Sale. The Year 6 children produced some delicious cakes, cup cakes, tray bakes and chocolate dipped apples for everyone to enjoy. Supporting them with hungry enthusiasm and generous donations, the rest of the school tucked into the tasty treats.
A huge thank you to everyone for making the Bake Sale such a huge success – we had fun and raised £151.36 for CAFOD! Amazing!!
© 2025 Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust.
