Kate Middleton at Wimbledon, July 2023.Photo:Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty
Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty
The Princess of Wales, 41, was recognized for raising awareness around the importance of the early years in the House of Commons Education Committee’s “Support for childcare and the early years” report, released last week. Princess Kate got a shout-out for the ongoing work of her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, established in June 2021 and themost significant stepin her long-term mission to help kids and parents.
“The Princess of Wales has done important work to raise the profile of the Early Years through her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. Its 2020 report ‘State of the Nation: Understanding Public Attitudes to the Early Years’ stressed the importance of elevating the importance of the early years period in the public consciousness,” the Education Committee said in the paper, published July 18.
Kate Middleton visits the Windsor Family Hub.Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty
Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty
“The ECEC sector is independent, multi-faceted and diverse, and does not always benefit from the same structural lines of communication through local authorities as the school sector. More outreach and strong channels of communication between the sector and the Government are needed to ensure that practitioners feel both valued and heard,” it continued. The committee also suggested that change is needed to improve low morale among early years practitioners, particularly around pay.
Children’s issues have long been a part of Princess Kate’s royal charity work, and she’s honed her focus in recent years on early childhood development and the critical role caretakers play in the first few years of life. To raise awareness to the next level, Princess Kate launched the landmark “Shaping Us” campaign in January as an offshoot of The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
Kate Middleton and Prince William at the Shaping Us launch.EDDIE MULHOLLAND/POOL/AFP via Getty
The Royal Foundationdefinesthe long-term Shaping Us initiative as “a major new awareness-raising campaign to increase public understanding of the crucial importance of the first five years of a child’s life.” The campaign hopes to transform “the issue from one of scientific interest to one of the most strategically important topics of our time,” a statement says.
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A mom of three, Kate sharesPrince George, 10,Princess Charlotte, 8, andPrince Louis, 5, with her husbandPrince William. In akickoff speechfor Shaping Us over the winter, she touched on how the early years shape the rest of our lives.
“The campaign is fundamentally about shining a spotlight on the critical importance of early childhood and how it shapes the adults we become,” she said in January. “This is why it is essential, to not only understand the unique importance of our earliest years, but to know what we can all do to help raise future generations of happy, healthy adults.”
“Those involved in raising children today need the very best information and support in helping to achieve this mission — and this campaign aims to help do that too,” she added.
The Wales family at Lambrook School.Jonathan Brady - Pool/Getty Images
source: people.com
