Catherine, The Princess of Wales, and The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood hosted The Shaping Us National Symposium at The Design Museum in London. The event was part of the nation-wide campaign ‘Shaping Us’ that Princess Kate launched earlier this year in February to raise awareness about the importance of the first five years of a child’s life and how they impact life-long outcomes.
“This is the next level. This is the blueprint for how she will think about the future of her work”. – Kensington Palace about The Princess of Wales’ work on Early Years
Yesterday evening, The Princess of Wales hosted a reception for the stakeholders involved in the Symposium and Shaping Us Campaign at the Design Museum. The symposium brought together cross-disciplinary leaders, child and adult specialists, and global thinkers for the first time to consider how we grow, think, and behave throughout life, in order to build resilience for the future.
The long-term campaign aims to increase awareness of, and action on, the unique importance of early childhood in shaping our future mental and physical wellbeing as adults, as well as the nature of the wider society we build.
The event was hosted by Shaping Us Champion Fearne Cotton and guest speaker included Professor Jack Shonkoff, Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard, Sara Rajeswaran, Chief of Staff at Aviva, a key member of the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood and Professor Robert Waldinger, Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development.
The two distinguished guests among the expert team were Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Lord William Hague, Chairman of the Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.
Ahead of the symposium, The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood has conducted a first of its kind global listening exercise, involving experts from 21 countries around the world, to unite the thinking and agree on the key foundational skills we lay in early childhood, but continue to grow beyond it, that help establish happy, healthy adult lives.
These social and emotional skills are fundamental to our future mental and physical well-being – shaping everything from our ability to form positive relationships, to our capacity for learning, working, and coping with adversity. They all have their foundations in early childhood. At the symposium, the results of these exercises were shared that shows a set of common core skills can apply equally to children and adults to bring people together with a united language and vision to drive action at every level.
During the afternoon, symposium attendees joined a series of workshops to look at what action can be taken at every level to protect and strengthen these skills for current and future generations across disciplines and across sectors.
View this post on Instagram
Kate Middleton shared a small tid-bit about how Prince Louis helped his classmates in building a feeling wheel. From the Telegraph’s report, “Louis’s class, they came back with a feeling wheel,” she said. “It’s really good, they go to the classroom – these are five or six year olds – and go in with names or pictures of a colour that represents how they feel that day.”
“Just as we need to restore, protect, and invest in our planet, so we must restore, protect, and invest in our societies, communities, relationships, and ourselves” – The Princess of Wales
The Princess of Wales delivered a passionate keynote speech at the symposium that addressed the importance of the early years, urgency the society needs to make it a priority and why Kate has chosen the field specifically as her primary focus. Addressing the gathering, Kate said,
“People often ask me why I focus my time on early childhood. The answer is because I care deeply about making a positive difference, in helping the most vulnerable and supporting those who are most in need.
This is not just about the youngest children in our society, who are, by their very nature, vulnerable. It is also about the many young people and adults who are suffering. We must do more than simply meet the short term needs of these individuals. We must also look at creating long term, preventative change. And that takes us right back to the beginning…..
It isn’t enough therefore to simply wish for a better world. We must acknowledge and address the root cause of some of today’s toughest social challenges and work together to find better answers………
Nurturing skills that enable us to know ourselves, manage our emotions, focus our thoughts, communicate with others, foster positive relationships, and explore the world are just as valuable to our long-term success as reading, writing or arithmetic.
These skills are the bedrock, not only for helping children to thrive, but also for restoring, protecting and investing in humankind. So, to rebalance and restore, calls for new thinking and action at every level. Because the future for our children is something we all build together; through the actions each of us takes every day”….
What The Princess of Wales wore to Shaping Us Symposium
- Emilia Wickstead Suit – (Repeat – debuted in September 2021 during a visit to Northern Ireland)
- Princess Diana’s Sapphire and Diamond Earrings – (Repeat – Debuted at the Trooping the Colour Parade in June 2022)
- Gianvito Rossi Pumps – (Repeat – Debuted in June 2022 during a Cardiff visit)
A Brilliant substitute for Kate’s Emilia Wickstead Suit
Yesterday evening, The Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Beatrice and Zara Tindall were seen leaving Clarence House after celebrating King Charles III’s 75th Birthday. Clarence House remains the King’s official residence in London.
Catherine was wearing green Needle and Thread Alicia Gown.
