My transition journal

Learning type: Classroom activity

Category: Creative writing, Reading culture

Programme: First Ministers Reading Challenge

Language: English

Genre: Biography

Age group: 9-11, 12-14

This bright and fun journal is designed to support pupils during the primary to secondary transition. You can download and print the whole journal for pupils to use or dip in and out of, using the pages that suit their needs best. It contains pages for pupils to fill in, such as:

A year planner and weekly schedule
A mood tracker
Spaces for recording new experiences and personal goals
Spaces for recording favourite books and exciting new reads
Blank pages for doodling

Download the journal

Using the journal

Here are a few suggestions of how you could use this journal to support the primary to secondary transition. You can also share this article by illustrator Candice with your pupils, which explores the benefits of journaling for wellbeing and uses pages from the transition journal. Drop everything and write

Once a week, give pupils 10–15 minutes at the beginning of a lesson (it could also be during registration) to record their thoughts, feelings and highlights from the week in their journal. Refer to this as 'Drop everything and write'. Many pupils will recognise this activity as they will be familiar with 'Drop everything and read' to support reading for pleasure, so will be used to this activity. Ask them to think about:

What happened? Was it a new experience?
How did it make them feel?
What did they do about it? What might they do differently next time?

Dedicated Doodle

The journal is designed in an informal, illustrated style, and has space for pupils to draw and doodle. Drawing can be a great way to process emotions. It also enables pupils to personalise their book and remind them that this journal is theirs and not 'school work'. Show pupils books such as A Different Sort of Normal by Abigail Balfe. She uses doodles to annotate her experience of autism and make the book personal. As well as time to write, let pupils draw and doodle across the pages. This is their journal, and they can decorate it however they like.

Find out more about creative writing for schools.