The Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, joined schoolchildren on a minibus for a visit to the National Portrait Gallery in London to launch an interactive trail focused on early years development. The Bobeam Tree Trail, inspired by the Shaping Us Framework, encourages children to explore social and emotional skills through art and storytelling.
The Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton , took her early years campaign to a new level by arriving at a royal engagement on a minibus full of schoolchildren today. Kate, who is mum to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, joined the youngsters on a school bus for a trip to the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The future Queen hopped on the mini bus with four and five year old pupils from All Souls CE Primary School in Fitzrovia, London, making the short journey to Trafalgar Square with them to launch an interactive trail at the Gallery, where she walked hand-in-hand with the kids. The Bobeam Tree Trail, based on work by her Royal Foundation for Early Childhood, was created using the Shaping Us Framework, which outlines 30 social and emotional skills crucial to living a healthy, happy life at all ages, launched by the Princess on 1 February. Combining two of her passions, art and early years development, the outing saw Kate join youngsters in activities designed around portraits to help them develop these important skills. The trail is centred on a magical tree with beautiful, colourful leaves, which thrives when surrounded by stories. Children were asked to help the tree by discovering the stories of people depicted in the artworks – exploring facial expressions, listening to audio recordings and using props. Kate joined students and teachers in an exploration of how faces can express feelings and emotions. They were encouraged to reflect on their own lives, feelings, and thoughts while creating a self-portrait, which they could 'feed' to a tree to help it grow, reports the Mirror. The trail, aimed at nursery and reception age children, is free and runs until 16 March. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) website also offers related activities for home use. Kate, who has been a patron of the NPG since 2011, also met with its newly appointed Director Victoria Siddall and executives from five other UK galleries. Over the course of 2025, The Box, Plymouth, The Lowry, Manchester, Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art, National Museums Northern Ireland and Museums and Galleries Sheffield will collaborate with the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood and the NPG to bring the Shaping Us framework to life through their collections. Staff at these institutions will also co-design a toolkit to help others across the UK incorporate the framework into their offerings for younger visitors. Earlier this week, the future Queen unveiled the Shaping Us Framework, urging society to 'invest in humankind' and 'build a more loving, empathetic and compassionate' world. The framework, created by a team of international academics, clinicians and early years practitioners assembled by her Centre for Early Childhood, is hoped to be applied across various sectors. This includes wellbeing programmes, team building, professional development, recruitment and human resources
Education Art Princess Of Wales Kate Middleton Early Childhood Shaping Us Framework National Portrait Gallery Bobeam Tree Trail Social Emotional Learning
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