Fourteen months can fly by when you are in a pirate ship. We swung open our doors to our first group of children in Tottenham, Haringey on 14th Jan 2019. 60 nine and ten year olds crawled through the secret passageway and we heard our first “Wow, this is amazing!” echo through the sails. Soon after joining us, our Young Pirates set to work on writing a book and by March 2019 they were published authors. Just over a year on, our second group of Haringey Pirates are about to star in a film at the Rio Cinema.
As you might know our ship in Tottenham is not actually a ship, it is a learning centre; a room at the top of the Trampery building close to the Spurs stadium. It is highly decorated to feel like the bow of a galleon. The children do not come along to play on the rigging, but to improve their reading and writing skills. We create this incredible environment because we believe when children who are falling behind at school that walking into our ship they can feel the joy of learning and reinvent themselves as confident writers and readers.
Having raised the funds and built the ship, what has been achieved in the past year?
Over 2,000 volunteer hours given
200 children have benefited from the space so far
95 adult volunteers support the children
10 local schools are working with us in partnership
3, no less, herbal teas on offer every afternoon
3 full time Crew work at the ship
1 fantastic space looks like a Pirate Ship!
What Went Well?
We had never tried to replicate our success, so it was great to see how positively we have been received in Haringey. The first set of data showed that the children made more than 16 months progress in their reading age. So no teething problems there! In fact, we have won Haringey’s Community Impact Award 2019 for Improving the lives of Children and Young People.
We are so proud to be partnering with 10 local schools, and forming we hope long term relationships with the Head teachers and schools.
Even Better If?
One area we need to continue to develop is the number of volunteers we recruit. As new kids on the block we need to get our name out there, and find new networks of local groups and friends who can give an afternoon a month to support children in their reading and writing.
It’s been a wonderful first year. Thank you for being a part of it.
Want to get involved? Consider volunteering or fundraising – we’d love to hear from you.
A salute,
Jude Williams (CEO)
