The Hackney Pirates work with around 140 young people a year aged 9-12 years old. The pirates are referred by their schools and are young people who are disadvantaged in their personal circumstances and / or are underachieving in some way at school. They are not generally young people who are entitled to additional support but who are deemed to be unlikely to receive 5 or more A*-C at GCSE.
Each pirate attends once a week during term time for two hours after school. They spend the session working one to one with a volunteer adult. In the first half of the session pirates in Year 5 and 6 read a book they have selected themselves with their volunteer. The pirates in Year 7 work with their volunteer helper to complete some of their homework and they undertake some guided reading as a group. In the second half of the session the pirates work with an adult volunteer on a writing project which is designed to be dynamic and to encourage creative thinking and the expression of ideas. They learn to perfect their writing through an editing and re-drafting process which culminates in the creation of a product which is professionally published and sold in the shop.
Volunteers come from the local community and there are about 300 currently registered who commit to at least one session per month. Around 20 volunteers attend each evening.
There are three Core Principles of the Hackney Pirates. These are;
i) extra adult attention – young people get one-to-one support from volunteers from the local community who help them with their reading and writing practice.
ii) creative literacy projects – the young people work on literacy projects which lead to something being professionally published from books, to T-shirts and CDs. This is to give them a real sense of achievement and pride when they see what they have created for sale in the shop.