Mini Vinnies
Mini Vinnies 2023-24
The Mini Vinnies meet every other Monday at lunchtime.
19th October
We had a Harvest Mass and offered all the items of food that was donated.
16th October
The children made Harvest posters and placed them around the school.
The children led an assembly about Harvest and asked children to bring in tins for the food bank.
2nd October
The Mini Vinnies met to discuss the new way of meeting and when.
Year 3- Alicia, Johan and Nikita
Year 4- Karleigh, Parsya and Scarlet
Year 5- Junior, Eli and Kate
Year 6- Emily, Lily and Charlotte
Mini Vinnies 2022-23
The Mini Vinnies meet each Monday after school from 3:30-4:30
Monday 3rd July and 17th July.
Mini Vinnies Film Night.
The Mini Vinnies arranged and led two film nights. One for years 4,5 and 6 and one for Reception, year 1, 2 and 3. The children loved selling sweets and looking after the children while they were watching the film. They would like to buy a gift off Cafod so they will continue to fundraise until they have enough for what they would like to buy.
Thursday 29th June 2023
The Mini Vinnies started to sell the tickets for the film night.
Monday 26th June 2023
Mini Vinnies choose a film for the film night next week.
Monday 26th June 2023
The children set up the book and uniform swap after school for the parents.
12th and 19th June
The children played games and then finished tickets and posters for the film night in a couple of weeks. Kelsey, Fazarna and Charlotte enjoyed putting the posters up around the school.
22nd May 2023
We played a different number game called 21 that we loved. Kate was very proud to be the winner.
We made posters to advertise the uniform swap to get parents to start to bring any spare/not needed uniform in.
15th May 2023
We played a number game called Rocket, that was very tricky and we didn't get past 4 (we were trying to count to 24).
Mrs Pugh spoke to Mrs Williams and she said yes to having 2 film nights for the school that we need to get organising. We are going to make posters, design tickets and choose sweets that we want to sell.
We also heard that Mrs Williams agreed to a uniform swap.
We spent the session designing tickets.
24th April 2023
Our first session after the Easter Holiday.
We had a lovely session as a group! We started by playing the sun shines on. Then we had a groups discussion on our next plans for the half term.
The children came up with a few ideas. 1) To collect and set up a uniform stall for parents to access if they would like some new uniform for next year. This then became an idea of a clothes, food and book stall too. They thought that this could be after school on a Monday during their session. 2) A activity/event at the end of the year for the rest of the children.
27th March 2023
The Mini Vinnies considered the last 2 terms of their time being a Mini Vinnie, they thought about what they have done and how it has impacted them.
13th March 2023
The children created posters to advertise their "Wear a colour day" and "Wear what you want day".
6th March 2023
The children created posters to advertise their "Wear a colour day" and "Wear what you want day".
February 2023
The children considered what Mini Vinnies meant to them.
"Mini Vinnies had made me a better person. I love Mini Vinnies as I have always wanted to work for charity."
"My most amazing memory is leading assemblies. Mini Vinnies makes me happy."
"I liked meeting Refugees."
"I like doing charity events"
27th February
The children who had been to St Chads Sanctuary spoke about their visit and what they found out. We decided that we would like to raise money for them. Emily suggested that we use the money to buy toiletries for them as they didn't have much. We planned a "Wear a colour day" and "Wear what you want day."
10th February 2023- St Chads Sanctuary
Mrs Williams and 6 Mini Vinnies went to visit St Chads Sanctuary to donate some of the clothes. They had tour around the sanctuary and learnt a lot about what they do.
30th January 2023
In groups we discussed what we would like to do next and any ideas of what we could do to help different people.
23rd January 2023
The children wrote cards for people who are homeless.
16th January 2023
The children gathered all of their donations and sorted them into piles.
14th December 2022
Mary's Meals Christmas fun day
We led an assembly on Mary's meals to the whole school.
Children went back to their classes for a fun afternoon.
12th December 2022.
We had a Mini Vinnie party to celebrate all of our hard work. We had sweets, crisps and squash and danced together.
5th December 2022
We played look up, look down.
We all finished the cards for the homeless. A group of children made a presentation on Mary's meals. 2 children from each class picked activities for their class.
Monday 14th November- 28th November 2022.
The homeless focus group focused on collecting the donations and making cards to go in the packs.
The Mary's Meals group designed the day and made posters to start advertising it.
Monday 7th November 2022
We started again by playing Wizards, giants and elves. It was very close at one point but Mrs Pugh's team were victorious again, 3/2.
The homeless group finished their posters ready to be put up around the school. They decided who would read their messages to the rest of the classes.
The Mary's meals group wrote more detailed plans for the day. Three children wrote a message to give to Mrs Damms. The others started to think of ideas for the day some craft and cooking ideas.
Monday 31st October 2022
We played wizards, giants and elves. Mrs Pugh's team won 4/5.
The homeless continued to make posters and wrote a message to read to the classes.
The Mary's meals group confirmed some ideas for the fun day.
Monday 17th October 2022
We sang some songs.
Then we split into two groups. A group designing posters to collect things for the homeless. The other group discussed ideas for the Christmas fun day.
Monday 10th October 2022
We started by playing the "the sun shines on."
Then we split into our groups and continued on our work from last week.
Harvest group finished their posters and wrote something to say to the classes.
The homeless group finished their posters.
Mary's meals group started to consider ideas for the classrooms and the hall for their Mary's Meals day.
Monday 3rd October 2022
We sang "We're singing in the rain." Then we split into three groups, a harvest group, a homeless group and a Mary's meals group.
The Harvest group worked on making posters for the school, they are also going to help collect donations in and speak to classes.
The Homeless group, discussed what they should collect in for the homeless and started making posters for the classes.
The Mary's meals group came up with some ideas to raise money for Marys meals through December.
Monday 26th September 2022
There were a total of 42 children who started at Mini Vinnies ranging from year 3-6.
We played some ice breaker games to get to know each other.
The Mini Vinnies have been meeting since September 2021 every Monday after school from 3:30-4:30. The first few weeks we considered the needs of the world. Since then we have picked a need to focus on each term.
Summer Term 2022
The children decided to focus on raising money for Mary's Meals. Firstly they looked into Mary's Meals and what they do. We found out that they give the children in different countries around the world a meal at school. This ensures that the children have a meal and that they go to school.
The children decided that they were going to plan a Mary's Meal retreat day. We decided that the 29th June would be prefect as our feast day too. The children planned every part of the whole day.
The children could wear white and blue and could donate £1. They started with a assembly that they wrote and led in front of the school to tell the school about Mary's Meals. The child had some activities where they were learning about SS Peter and Paul. During the afternoon each year group came outside to play games led by the Mini Vinnies.
Spring Term 2022
The second focus that we decided on was to support refugees. This is because we had been affected by the situation in Ukraine.
Firstly we considered what we knew about refugees and also any questions that we had.
Then we thought about different fund raising activities throughout Lent.
We researched about different refugee charities and decided to focus on "Stories of hope and home."
We organised the following fund raising activities.
Own clothes day
Crazy hair day
Wearing red clothes day
Tip top sale after school
The children did so well with all of the activities.
Then we had to count the money to see how much we had raised.
Autumn Term 2021
The children decided that they would like to focus on helping the homeless.
Jesus said " I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did to me." Matthew 25:40
Firstly the children considered what people who are homeless needed. We thought that during the colder months it would be good to consider helping them with warmer clothes such as hats, scarves and gloves.
Next we thought about how we could help them. In groups the children presented their ideas. We voted on the idea and decided to ask each class to donate a different item of clothing in.
Then we made posters for each class and presented to each class what we wanted them to do.
When the donations started coming in we sorted them into packs and made cards to put into the packs.
On the 1st December Miss Foster and Mrs Sharpling went into Birmingham City Centre to hand out the packs to people.
Finally we told the Mini Vinnies about who we met. We made a powerpoint (below) for each class to see.
Pupil voice -
Anna "I am happy that we helped the homeless."
Riley "I enjoyed making the difference."
Miss Foster "The people that we spoke to in Birmingham were very happy with what we gave them. They loved the cards made by the children."
