Schoolchildren could be encouraged to climb a tree, go stargazing and try yoga, as they tick off items on a character-building "bucket list" being drawn up by ministers.

Education secretary Damian Hinds is due to publish a series of extracurricular goals for pupils to achieve every year – which could include exploring a cave, knitting and growing vegetables – to develop their resilience.

Building children's character has been a key theme of Mr Hinds since he joined the Department for Education in January, and was mentioned in his first speech as education secretary.

He explained: "Bluntly, it is about doing stuff that doesn't involve looking at a screen. It's about getting out and about."

Mr Hinds told the i newspaper that formal qualifications "are obviously not the only thing" and it was important to teach children how to "bounce back from the knocks that inevitably come to all of us".

"We put a lot of effort into making sure we can share really good curriculum plans and teaching materials," he said. "This is an equivalent of that for stuff outside the curriculum, in recognition of the fact that what you do academically is only part of the story."

The education secretary came across the idea on a visit to St Werburgh's Primary School in Bristol, where pupils are given a "passport" of enrichment activities.

Between arrival in Reception and leaving in Year 6, youngsters are given 15 goals to achieve each year. They include visiting a place of worship, baking a cake and sending an email.

The school's list is based on the National Trust's "50 things to do before you're 11¾" initiative.

Among the goals are skimming a stone, finding frog spawn and learning to ride a horse.