‘My Activity Passport’ downloaded 42,000 times in four months

List of activities to boost resilience downloaded equivalent of 375 times per day

A ‘passport’ of activities for children and their families to try together to help build character and resilience has been downloaded an average of 375 times a day since its launch.

‘My Activity Passport’ was launched by Education Secretary Damian Hinds in December 2018 as part of his drive to inspire primary school children to try new life experiences – from flying a kite or going on a nature trail, to learning a poem or cooking a meal – and underlines the importance of wider life experiences. The passport contains milestones for each year group to complete both in and outside school.

As the Easter break comes to an end, downloads of the passport – backed by the Scouts, Girlguiding UK and the National Trust – have reached 42,000, meaning hundreds of families and children will have been encouraged to try a range of new activities.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

The activity passport is a way for children to channel their natural curiosity into experiencing new things or places, while also preparing them for the challenges life throws at us all by developing valuable skills like confidence, tenacity or commitment.

When I visit schools or organisations around the country, a common quality I see among children is their enthusiasm to try new activities that challenge them – and ultimately how they learn to do things they never knew they could do.

With thousands of passports downloaded – the equivalent of 16 times every hour since it launched – I’m hopeful that even more families will use the passport as inspiration for spending quality time together.

The passport was inspired by the Education Secretary’s visit to St Werburgh’s Primary School in Bristol, where every child is encouraged to take part in a list of tasks and experiences, with key achievements for each school year to tick off.

Schools in England were sent the new passport in January for teachers to adapt to the needs of their pupils and their communities, including opportunities for children to take part in charitable projects that make positive changes for themselves and others around them.

Through social media, teachers, schools and charities have been sharing their ideas and their progress with activities, via the hashtag #myactivitypassport.

Angela Salt, CEO of Girlguiding, said:

Thanks to the dedicated work of volunteers, hundreds of thousands of girls take part in activities with Girlguiding each week. We want all young people to have fun, explore their interests, and make a difference. That’s why we contributed to the Activity Passport and are glad that so many young people are using it and downloading it.

The passport builds on the Education Secretary’s vision for every child to build character and resilience through enjoyable and varied experiences, underpinned by the 5 Foundations for Building Character, all of which are represented in some form in the passport’s list of age-appropriate activities:

• Sport – competitive sport and activities such as running, martial arts, swimming and purposeful recreational activities, such as rock climbing, hiking, orienteering, gym programmes, yoga or learning to ride a bike;
• Creativity – all creative activities from coding, arts and crafts, writing, graphic design, film making and music composition;
• Performing – activities could include dance, theatre and drama, musical performance, choir, debating or public speaking;
• Volunteering & Membership – bringing together teams for practical action in the service of others or groups, such as volunteering, litter-picking, fundraising, any structured youth programmes or uniformed groups like Beavers, Brownies, Cubs, Guides, Scouts, Cadets and Duke of Edinburgh; and
• World of work – practical experience of the world of work, work experience or entrepreneurship. For primary age children, this may involve opportunities to meet role models from different jobs.

The Education Secretary laid out the 5 Foundations for Building Character at a speech at the Church of England Foundation for Educational Leadership conference. He pledged to work with schools and external organisations to help every child access activities within each of the foundations.