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.