Mini Vinnies
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify you Father in Heaven” (Matthew 5:16)
As members at St John Fisher we give support to people in their community, meeting them face to face and trying to help them in any way we can. Our mission is to turn concern into action. We follow in the footsteps of St Vincent De Paul by being a good neighbours. We meet together to pray, discuss and support the local and world community.
Who are the Mini Vinnies?
Mini Vinnies follow in the footsteps of Christ and St Vincent de Paul.
The Mini Vinnies are the youngest members of the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP), an international Christian voluntary organisation dedicated to tackling poverty in all its forms by providing practical assistance to people in need.
The Mini Vinnies get together in primary schools and parishes across England and Wales to live out their mission of see, think, do, supporting their school community and beyond alongside the SVP.
Mini Vinnies at St John Fisher
We are a very busy group who meet each week. We work hard to support those in need.
Mini Vinnies turn concern into action by:
Visiting local care homes to sing and share stories with residents
Creating arts and crafts to share with others
Running food collections for a local food bank
Fundraising for the SVP and other charities
Supporting Mary’s Meals
Litter picking around our local environment
Recycling unwanted clothing to provide funds to support Angel StarFish Educare Centre in South Africa.
Delivering Assemblies for our school on The Jubilee Year of Hope.
Making Cups of Kindness for all our staff at school
· Catholic Life
· At St John Fisher, we do really live out our Mission Statement ‘Growing through God, we Learn, Laugh and Love.’ We have a clear vision of God, people and life. We have gospel values at the centre of everything that we do. Christ truly is at the centre of all that we do in our school.
· We actively participate in a variety of action groups to show our respect and care for one another. We extend our concern to the needy through our charitable service and prayer.
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· Mini Vinnies are very busy working with different charities like, ‘Mary’s Meals,’ ‘ Angel starfish charity, CAFOD and Widnes Foodbank and Widnes salvation Army.
· Collectively, as a community, we working to complete our ‘Live Simply’ award from CAFOD. Through recycling uniform, gardening club, class and family pledges to ‘Live Simply’ ensuring that we are all stewards for our common home.
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· Mini Vinnies
· Our Mini Vinnies are Mini St Vincent de Pauls. From Y3 to Y6, Mini Vinnies meet each week and they are very enthusiastic and motivated. They really do want to make a difference, they try to tackle poverty in all forms. Mini Vinnies are very active, they meet to pray, discuss and support all those in need. They come up with ways in which they can make a real difference to their communities and the wider world, becoming global citizens. They work with Anna Mary’s Meals, supporting all the amazing work that they do. They collect unloved clothing for the Angel Starfish Charity and recycle uniforms for our school community. They are organising our CAFOD Lent fundraiser, The Big Walk. The deliver Collective Worship in class and to the school. They are the driving force for Catholic Life and Mission in our school.
· CAFOD
· We actively support CAFOD, it is the official Catholic aid agency for England and Wales. They work with partners across the world, wherever the need is. It is greater to bring hope and compassion to poor communities, standing side by side with them to end poverty and injustice. CAFOD volunteers visit school to deliver assemblies, sharing new campaigns with us. We watch the national assemblies and actively support all their new initiatives helping to make the world a better place for all our global brothers and sisters.
Mary’s Meals
· We are working to achieve our Mary’s Meals school accreditation, we have hosted spooky porridge day to support World Porridge Day and during Lent, we have made biscuits and sold them to ‘ raise some dough’ for Mary’s Meals. We support the work that Mary’s Meals does around the world, it is a movement that will not accept that a child should go hungry in the world of plenty. They serve nutritious meals in some of the world’s poorest countries. They provide school meals, meeting the needs of hungry children whilst encouraging them to gain an education. We actively collect pennies to pay for these meals, 8p feeds a child each day.
· Angel Starfish Charity
· Angel Starfish Charity was started in 2005 by four Headteachers who attended a conference in South Africa. They were saddened by what they observed for the children. It is a UK based charity that supports the day to day running of the Angel Starfish Educare. This provides high quality, affordable care and education for many vulnerable children. We recycled preloved clothing and help to raise funds to support their work. We enjoyed a Zoom call with the pupils and staff.
· Widnes Food Bank- is a local charity which supports our local community. They provide food and support for the local community, helping to support vulnerable in Widnes. We collect food and toiletries to support this charity. Each class, completed a reverse advent calendars bringing in donations and we also collected food donations for the Harvest Festival.
· Live Simply
· We made an action plan, outlining how, as a school community, achieved the ‘Live Simply’ CAFOD award. We Love simply, Live sustainably, Live in solidarity. We want to make an impact globally, locally and in our school. Globally, we support CAFOD and their work. Locally, we are working with ‘Teardrops’ to support the homeless and vulnerable in our local area. In school, we are recycling unwanted uniform, each class has a pledge about how they will ‘Live Simply’ and we are encouraging our families to share their family pledges too!