Blenheim Primary — A summer challenge journal built around 43 childhood experiences

The brief

Blenheim Primary came to us for a summer challenge journal that would sit with each Key Stage 1 pupil through the holidays — somewhere to tick off the experiences they'd had and reflect on what those experiences were actually like. The school wanted one consistent reflection format repeated through the book, so a child writing up their tenth experience uses the same fields as their first. The journal also needed an opening that doubled as a menu — the full list of experiences laid out at the front so children (and parents) could see the whole challenge at a glance and pick what to try next.

What we designed

Working with Blenheim, we built a slim A5 journal anchored on a checklist of childhood experiences and a single repeating reflection template.

An opening checklist of 43 experiences a child should try before the end of Key Stage 1 — grouped from the gentle (make a daisy chain, plant a seed, fly a kite) to the more adventurous (walk three miles all at once, run a kilometre, climb a hill and roll down it) — with a simple traffic-light key marking each one as easy, medium or difficult depending on how much adult supervision is needed.
A mix of outdoor, cultural and social experiences side by side: identifying five different trees from their leaves, identifying eight wild birds, buying fruit and veg from a market, visiting a different place of worship, celebrating a traditional holiday from another culture, meeting a school Governor, performing a song or poem in front of others.
An "Add your own…" prompt at the end of the checklist so children and families can extend the challenge with experiences that matter to them.
A repeating reflection spread used for every entry: the experience name at the top, the date completed, a large open panel for notes and drawings, a "This experience made me…" sentence starter, separate prompts for the best bit and the worst bit, and a final "Would you do this experience again?" question.
The same template repeated through the journal so there's no decision to make — each new experience goes in the next blank spread.

The finished book

The journals land at Blenheim Primary each year for the Key Stage 1 cohort, giving every child a single book to carry through the summer and into the start of the next school year — one place to record the experiences they've had, what they thought of them, and which ones they'd happily do all over again.