Literacy Pirates

24/09/2026

⏰ Last chance to apply!

Applications for our Corporate Partnerships Manager role close tomorrow, Friday 25 September at 5pm.

We’re looking for an experienced corporate fundraiser to join Literacy Pirates at an exciting point in our growth. You’ll manage and develop brilliant partnerships, generate new opportunities and play a key role in helping us reach many more children across the UK.

💰 £40,000–£42,000
📍 London, with hybrid working
⏰ Apply by 5pm tomorrow

Find out more and apply:
https://literacypirates.org/news/job-vacancy-corporate-partnerships-manager

Please share with anyone who might be perfect for the role!

23/09/2026

Great to be at Queen Mary University of London Students’ Union Volunteering Fair today! 💙

We loved meeting so many students keen to give their time, share their skills and make a difference, alongside lots of other brilliant organisations doing fantastic work.

A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by for a chat. We hope to see some new faces volunteering with us soon! 🏴‍☠️📚

21/09/2026

Meet Patricia, one of our wonderful Literacy Pirates volunteers! 💛

She joined us in 2019 and has since taken part in almost 200 sessions. Along the way she's helped children find their confidence with books, including one shy girl who went from feeling nervous about reading to volunteering to read aloud in just three weeks.

We'd love more people like Patricia to join us. Volunteers give four or more after-school sessions a term (up to three hours each), and you'll get guidance from a Session Leader. No teaching experience needed, just a bit of time and a lot of encouragement.

Read Patricia's story and find out how to sign up: https://literacypirates.org/news/volunteer-spotlight-patricias-story

Know someone who'd be great at this? Tag them below! 👇

07/09/2026

A MASSIVE shout-out to Hot Girl Comic Inc, Bella Narain, this brilliant bunch of hilarious women and everyone who packed out Top Secret Comedy Club last month - helping to raise another £125 for Literacy Pirates! Thank you so much for your ongoing support. You're amazing!

05/09/2026

📢 We're looking for an evaluation partner.

At Literacy Pirates, we know our programme makes a difference. Now we want to strengthen our evidence base and better understand the impact of our work.

That's why we're commissioning the first independent external evaluation of the Virtual Ship, our online literacy programme for children aged 8 to 13.

We're looking for a research partner who can help us answer an important question: do the children who take part in our programme make more progress than similar children who don't?

We're particularly interested in teams with experience in:
✅ Education evaluation
✅ National Pupil Database analysis
✅ Mixed-methods research

If that sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you.

📄 Click on the link to read the full tender document. https://literacypirates.org/news/were-looking-for-an-evaluation-partner

⏰ Deadline to submit proposals is 5pm on Monday 14 September.

Please share with your networks to help us reach the right partners.

Literacy Pirates is commissioning an independent external evaluation of the Virtual Ship, our online literacy programme for children aged 8 to 13.

14/08/2026

🏴‍☠️ We're Hiring: Corporate Partnerships Manager 🏴‍☠️
Are you a relationship-builder who loves creating meaningful partnerships and making a real difference? Literacy Pirates is looking for a Corporate Partnerships Manager to help grow and strengthen corporate support for our mission.

By joining our crew, you'll play a key role in securing partnerships that help children develop the literacy, confidence and perseverance they need to thrive. 📚✨

If you're passionate about fundraising, stakeholder engagement and creating impactful collaborations, we'd love to hear from you.

⚓ Find out more and apply here: Job Vacancy: Corporate Partnerships Manager | Literacy Pirates

Please share with your network! 💙



https://literacypirates.org/news/job-vacancy-corporate-partnerships-manager

(Pictured - Bain Capital Volunteers at Literacy Pirates, 2023)

25/07/2026

“It’s such a brilliant, brilliant project. I’ve literally seen kids at primary level and just before secondary as well, grow in confidence want to put their hands up, want to speak out – their reading and writing improving hugely.”

Find out how our incredible volunteers like Vick Hope are helping to equip children with the literacy skills and self belief they need to thrive in the classroom – and beyond!



https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbDSkBFqCW8/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

22/07/2026

🎵📚 Reading meets music this summer — and it’s going to be epic.

The Summer Reading Challenge 2026 is back, and this year’s theme — Read to the Beat! — explores the magical connection between stories and songs, and how both spark imagination and creativity in children.

Delivered by The Reading Agency in partnership with local libraries across the UK and powered by Universal Music Group UK, it’s the biggest reading for pleasure programme for children in the country — getting around 700,000 kids through library doors every year.

This year’s Challenge is brought to life with illustrations by award-winning author and illustrator, Harry Woodgate.

New for 2026: a redesigned digital platform that’s gamified and year-round, keeping children reading — and connected to their local library — long after the summer ends. 🎮

👉 Find brilliant book recommendations and everything you need to get involved:

🔗 readingagency.org.uk/summer-reading-challenge

Find out how we’re helping children to develop a lifelong love of learning:

🌊 Visit us at literacypirates.org

20/07/2026

Some lovely words from one of our incredible volunteers - the fabulous Vick Nwosu-Hope.

Vick's written a piece about why she volunteers with Literacy Pirates and why she believes books give children the tools to make sense of the world around them.

She talks about the joy of watching a child put their hand up to share what they think of a story - and why that matters more than ever, with reading enjoyment among kids still well below where it was a decade ago.

It's a lovely reminder of why our volunteers give up their time every week, and why the work matters.

Give it a read - and if you've got a little spare time each month and love books as much as Vick does, we'd love to hear from you. 🏴‍☠️📚

Go All In 2026

The most important thing that we gain from reading is empathy — you learn to walk a day in someone else’s shoes

30/04/2026

At Literacy Pirates, every Young Pirate is a writer ✍️🏴‍☠️

From the moment they join us, each student is treated like a real author and by the end of the programme they really are!

Each cohort engages in a project: a book, newspaper, or film. Through our Writing Islands approach - a structured drafting and redrafting model - they learn to develop stories that are published in real world products in the final weeks of the programme.

Have a read of these gorgeous poems written by two Young Pirates, Young Pirates Jannah and Leon. These poems were published in a book of poetry!!