Ahoy, everyone! I’m Pippa, the charity intern. I started at the Literacy Pirates in October, and it’s been very interesting to say the least. My role means that I work with all the different teams, so in the morning I’m replying to volunteer emails and creating social media content, then in the afternoon I’m usually in session helping the Young Pirates and volunteers navigate the stormy seas that is virtual learning.
My favourite part of working here is Shout Outs at the end of each session. It makes me so happy to see all the Young Pirates and volunteers being so positive and kind towards each other, and it really makes you smile at the end of a busy day. It’s so important to recognise the effort that both the Young Pirates and the volunteers have put in to their session, and people get so pleased when they get a well deserved shout out. I especially love when Young Pirates shout out each the work of each other, and give their friends a confidence boost and a smiling face!
For the first few weeks, I was still trying to find my feet when we got plunged into our second lockdown. This meant that we transitioned all of our sessions to the virtual ship instead, with very little notice! Working from home all the time was very different to how I initially expected it to be. At first I was worried about how the sessions would work if completely online, and if the Young Pirates would be able to engage with the sessions as easily, but these worries were unnecessary!
Reading the published work of the Young Pirates was amazing. Seeing the stories that I’d heard so much about in session on a printed page made me feel so proud of the work that each of them had put into their project. The upcoming project sounds just as exciting, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. Seeing their growth in confidence and ability after only a term is incredible – seeing Young Pirates who were initially too nervous to share their work openly sharing with their crewmates and other Young Pirates a sentence that they’re really proud of will never get old.
It’s so wonderful to see the same faces every week and to build up that rapport with both the Young Pirates and the Crewmates, and also seeing their relationship deepen! Whether it’s hearing about a Young Pirate’s protest at school, or a Crewmates’s cat jumping on camera to say hello, working at the Literacy Pirates is never boring.
