At St Vincent de Paul Catholic Primary School, we are proud to have an active and enthusiastic group of Mini Vinnies — children who follow in the footsteps of St Vincent de Paul by putting their faith into action through helping others.
Our Mini Vinnies are a group of young people who meet regularly to pray, reflect, and plan ways to make a positive difference in our school, parish, and wider community. Inspired by the values of kindness, compassion and service, they show us all that no one is too young to change the world for the better.
From supporting local charities to spreading joy through simple acts of kindness, our Mini Vinnies help to live out our school mission: Serving with Love, Striving for Excellence. They remind us that every little action, done with love, makes a big difference.
If you’d like to know more about what our Mini Vinnies are up to this term, please see below for their latest news and projects!
“Serving with love, the Vincentian way.”
Mini Vinnies: Making a Difference Every Day
(Faith in Action at St Vincent de Paul Catholic Primary School)
Our Mini Vinnies continue to inspire us all by living out our school mission through service, care and creativity. Meeting weekly with Mrs Cotter, the team of 22 children work hard to put their faith into action — supporting our school, local community and wider world with energy and joy.
Throughout the year, they have been instrumental in caring for our common home, inspired by Laudato Si’. Together with children across the school, they maintain and develop our beautiful allotment, Forest School and school grounds. They have planted, dug, painted, cleaned and sown seeds — all to create a welcoming, wildlife-friendly space where nature can flourish. This year we celebrated the arrival of our first pond visitors, affectionately named Vincent and Pauline, as part of the new Vinnies’ Pond project.
The allotment continues to thrive, producing fruit, vegetables and flowers including peas, leeks, tomatoes, garlic, and cornflowers. These have been enjoyed by our kitchen and shared with Mini Vinnies’ families — a true example of using God’s gifts wisely. Year 6 have also worked with the Mini Vinnies on a new ‘wild pods’ project, creating wildlife patches in the local estate — another exciting way of caring for creation and supporting our community.
The Mini Vinnies were also central to our poignant Remembrance Day display, working alongside Miss Rowe, Mr Damulis and the whole school to create a moving tribute under the banner SVP Remembers. Their creativity and teamwork brought this vision to life beautifully.
In the spring term, the Mini Vinnies organised a hugely successful fundraising event — Wear What Makes You Happy Day. This joyful day raised £220 towards enhancing our school prayer room. They are now planning further improvements to our spiritual spaces, including the development of an outdoor prayer garden.
In the summer term, our Mini Vinnies helped to steer the school’s Eco Week, in partnership with the Liverpool Schools’ Parliament. This special week focused on how we, individually and together, can make a difference to our city and our planet. As part of Eco Week, the team helped organise Wear it Green Day, raising £95 for a whole-school planting project and the new prayer garden. The week ended with a refreshing lolly ice sale on a warm day, raising £85 for CAFOD’s Easter appeal — helping families in need to buy chickens and improve food security.
The Mini Vinnies also took their mission out into the wider community, working with the Liverpool Exhibition Centre to create a bug hotel, inspired by the one they first built in our own Forest School.
We are also delighted to share that our Live Simply Award application has now been finalised and submitted for approval. We are extremely excited and hopeful that we can continue to make a real difference on a personal level, a local level and a worldwide level — living in the most simple ways and forms that we can, to protect and preserve our common home.
We are so proud of our Mini Vinnies and the example they set to us all — showing that even the smallest actions, when done with love, can make a big difference. Thank you to Mrs Cotter for her inspiring leadership and to every Mini Vinnie for their hard work and joy. Watch this space for more exciting projects and updates from our incredible team!