The Princess of Wales has arrived at a symposium where the findings of new research from her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood will be presented.
Kate, who launched her early years Shaping Us campaign in January, appeared elegant in a purple power suit as she stepped out at the event following a late night with Prince William at King Charles’ 75th birthday party at Clarence House.
The royal mother-of-three, 41, will deliver the keynote speech at the occasion at the Design Museum in London, attended by child and adult specialists and global thinkers.
Said to be Kate’s ‘life’s work’, the Shaping Us project aims to highlight the significance of the formative years of a child’s life. She hopes it will influence attitudes towards children in the early years period of their lives.
Kensington Palace said the centre has conducted a global listening exercise, involving experts from 21 countries to unite the thinking and agree on the key foundational skills laid in early childhood, but continue to grow beyond it, that help establish happy, healthy adult lives.
These social and emotional skills are described as fundamental to our future mental and physical wellbeing, shaping everything from our ability to form positive relationships to our capacity for learning, working and coping with adversity.
The Shaping Us National Symposium will share the findings from this exercise and focus on the action needed to make social and emotional skills a greater priority.
TV presenter Fearne Cotton, a Shaping Us champion, will present the event and the day will also feature talks from a range of thought leaders to outline the scientific, economic and human cases for prioritising early childhood.
These thought leaders in attendance include Professor Jack Shonkoff, Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard whom Kate previously met during a visit to Boston last year.
Sara Rajeswaran, Chief of Staff at Aviva, a key member of the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood which The Princess launched in March, will also be featured in the event, alongside Professor Robert Waldinger, Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies of adult life ever conducted.
The findings will be presented and discussed at the event by a panel of experts covering their professional and personal experiences.
Chaired by Professor Eamon McCrory, the panel will include broadcaster Ashley John-Baptiste, clinical psychologist and author Sophie Mort, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, Neil Leitch and Beverley Barnett-Jones, Associate Director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory.
During the afternoon, Symposium attendees will join 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.
The event and the research that has been carried out by The Centre for Early Childhood is a key milestone for The Centre’s Shaping Us campaign.
Earlier today, the Princess of Wales made a quite the entrance in a slick promo video for the Shaping Us National Symposium taking place today.
Kate can be seen gliding towards the stage entrance as her €630 Gianvito Rossi heels click dramatically against the floor.
The royal’s silhouette, clad in a chic burgundy power-suit, is stylishly contrasted with the white walls surrounding her as she prepares for her keynote speech.
The short clip, shared on the Prince and Princess of Wales’s X account last night, is also interlaced with shots of the preparations taking place ahead of the event.
Kate opted for an effortlessly elegant, business-savvy ensemble worth £1,940.02. The Princess sported one of her favourite looks – a maroon £750 blazer from Roland Mouret teamed with matching £450 wide-leg trousers.
Adding a pop of brightness, the mother-of-three donned a £119 white shirt bodysuit from Holland Cooper clothing. To accessorise, she opted for £72 pearl earrings from Shyla.
Kate styled her voluminous brunette tresses in a blowout, keeping her make-up chic and simple with dark eyeliner and pink lipstick.
‘Tomorrow we are hosting The #ShapingUs National Symposium,’ the video caption from last night read.
‘We will bring 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.’
Yesterday evening, Kate was also snapped at a reception for the symposium, where she got the chance to prepare for her keynote speech.
Snaps from the event show the Princess rehearsing at the podium as she gets ready for the big day.
She also grinned while chatting with guests, including Justin Welby – the Archbishop of Canterbury – yesterday.
The multi-media campaign is part of a major push by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, set up by the princess in June 2021, to raise awareness of how our early years mould our lives.
It is set to run for at least five years, and has in past been described by a Kensington Palace spokesman as the princess’s ‘life’s work’.
Earlier this year, the princess spoke passionately about the campaign in an open letter published in the Mail on Sunday, in which she set out her plan for Shaping Us.
Reports produced by the Early Childhood centre have revealed that the first five years shape future wellbeing more than any other stage of development, with our brains growing faster than at this time then any other.
It also hopes to ‘break the cycle’ of parents who experienced difficult childhoods themselves. Palace aides say the idea for the project began even before Kate became a mother.
