With Christ at our side to guide us,
we shine in all that we do.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We are proud to announce our Mini Vinnies Leadership Team for the academic year 2025/2026. After discussing the responsibilities of each role, the Mini Vinnies voted for their leaders for the year. We have a President, a Vice-President, 2 Treasurers, 2 Secretaries and 2 Communication Officers. Congratulations to our new Leadership Team!
In our first session of the academic year, the children spent some time getting to know each other. We then learnt about the leadership roles within the Mini Vinnies. The children reflected on their own qualities, skills and talents, and we discussed those required by each leadership role.
They voted to elect the children who will take on the leadership roles within the group, linking to our British value, democracy, and our Catholic Social Teaching principle, subsidiarity. We chose a president, a vice-president, secretaries, treasurers and communications officers.
We are proud to announce our Mini Vinnies for the academic year 2025/2026. We pray that each child will continue to grow in faith and be inspired to help those less fortunate in our local community and around the world. We hope that, by working together as a team, they will unite in their mission to spread kindness and be a light in our school and community.
We invited children from across our junior classes to apply to be Mini Vinnies this academic year. The children were tasked to fill out the application form, reflecting on what they could do to help those in need in our local area. They made links between these actions and how we can follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
© 2025 Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust.
