Pentecost Celebration

Our Mini Vinnies shared a beautiful Pentecost Liturgy with the whole school on Monday 10 June to celebrate the birthday of our church.

They taught everyone about the meaning of the word ‘Pentecost’ and explained what Christians believe happened 50 days after Easter.

 

We listened to the Gospel, shared prayers and reminded ourselves that the Holy Spirit never leaves us and so God never leaves us.

They loved pulling the party poppers and setting off the balloons to celebrate the birthday of our church! Everyone sang and worshipped as we all joined in with the actions for ‘‘Burn like a star’.

 

Mini Vinnie Pentecost Party!

The day of Pentecost is one of our favourite feast days of the Church year. In preparation for Sunday, our Mini Vinnies had a Pentecost Party.

We considered the day of Pentecost and talked about the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the disciples and the “birthday of the church”. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for the disciples to become apostles who spread the Good News throughout the world and throughout the ages.

This on-going gift of the Holy Spirit is seen in St. Charles’ School every day and especially through our Mini Vinnies. We think this is worth celebrating!

 

One nose at a time!

Red Nose Day!

Our Mini Vinnies were on a mission to help end child poverty – one nose at a time!

This Red Nose Day they decided to raise money to support programs that ensure children in need are safe, healthy and educated.

For Comic Relief our Mini Vinnies encouraged the children to come to school wearing a red accessory, paint their nose red (our Eco-council requested that we refrained from wearing plastic noses to cut down on plastic pollution) and held a ‘Soak the Staff’ at the end of the school day.

Thanks to our fantastic pupils and parents and the great team effort from all of our staff we raised …

£281.00.

Fantastic Fundraising!

A huge thank you to all of our families for your help this Fairtrade Fortnight!

Thanks to your donations, our Mini Vinnies raised £156.29 selling Fairtrade products at their Fairtrade Food Stall.

Thank you so much.

I wonder what fundraising ideas the Mini Vinnies will come up with next …. ?

Fairtrade Food Stall

Some of our Mini Vinnies held a Fairtrade Food Stall at break time to continue celebrating ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’.

Our Mini Vinnies wanted to make sure they were spreading the message to our school community about the people – especially the woman – who are working in developing countries on the cocoa farms to provide cocoa for our chocolate.

Everyone enjoyed some Fairtrade chocolate and indulged before Lent begins tomorrow.

Thank you so much to all of our families for donating Fairtrade products for our Mini Vinnies to sell. Without your support, these events would not be able to take place and for that we are very grateful.

Once all of the money has been counted, we will let you all know how much money our Mini Vinnies raised for Fairtrade Fortnight.

 

Fairtrade Friday

This afternoon our children got together in their house groups to learn a little more about fair trade. They had lots of fun exploring where our food comes from and how we can help other people in the developing world through activities, quizzes and games.

Thank you to those who have kindly donated Fairtrade chocolate and other Fairtrade food products .

Please continue to donate food in order for our Fairtrade Food Stall to go ahead on Tuesday 5 March 2019.

Fairtrade Fortnight

On Monday 25 February our Mini Vinnies shared an assembly for the school to explain ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ which runs from 25 February until 10 March 2019.

For two weeks every year, thousands of people across the UK come together to celebrate the people who grow our food. These are people who live in the poorest countries in the world who are often exploited and badly paid for the work they do.

Our Mini Vinnies explained that this year ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ is going to focus on the people – in particular the woman – who grow cocoa in developing countries and who make the chocolate we love so much.

They told everyone that we, as Christians, want to do the same as Martin Luther King and spread the message that we should have an equal world with equal rights for all.

This week our Mini Vinnies have asked the children to bring in and donate Fairtrade products which they will sell on Tuesday 5 March at their Fairtrade Food Stall.

On Tuesday 5 March the children can bring money into school and visit the Fairtrade Food Stall to buy some of the products – they can indulge in delicious chocolate before Lent begins!

 

YMT Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Be joyful in hope … patient in affliction … faithful in prayer.

On Wednesday (06.02.18), Annie and Maria represented our school as the President and Vice President of our Mini Vinnies at the annual Youth Friday Celebration Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

It was such a wonderful afternoon of prayer, reflection, offering and song alongside Fr Dermott Donnelly, other schools in the Diocese and the Youth Ministry Team.

 

 

Merry ‘Mini Vinnie’ Christmas!

We have a fantastic group of children in Mini Vinnies this academic year who are striving to make a difference in our school, our local community and around the world.

Our Mini Vinnies have worked so very hard this Autumn Term and have raised so much money for charities locally and globally.

They cannot wait to continue their good work and turn their concern into action in 2019!

Poppy Place

Throughout November the Mini Vinnies have held a lunchtime prayer and spiritual art club named, ‘The Poppy Place’. During this time, children from all classes were welcomed into the lunch club to spend some time reflecting on those who lost their lives for us and those who are still serving. The children spent the time writing poppy prayers, armistice mindfulness colouring and using arts and D&T skills to make poppies.

Our new House Groups also met together and each group explored the meaning of the poppies through art.

Poppies make a very good symbol for remembrance for many reasons. They were the only flower that grew easily on the battlefields after World War One. They’re very delicate flowers too, that only live for a short time, which is rather like the young men killed in battle.

The colour is important too – what does the bright red remind you of?

Can you see why some people might think that fields of poppies look like fields of blood?

All of the wonderful poppies made have been collaborated to create a Poppy Display in school.