The Princess of Wales looked delighted today as she arrived at the National Portrait Gallery in central London hand-in-hand with a five-year-old girl after riding next to her on the bus.
Kate, 43, launched an ‘interactive trail’ to support social and emotional development in under fives with pupils from All Souls CE Primary School in Marylebone.
The Princess rode the bus with pupils and made a special bond with five-year-old Grace, walking hand-in-hand with her throughout the gallery – despite the young girl having no idea who the royal was.
Kate was dressed in in a brown blazer over a black high-necked wool jumper, as well as £220 pinstripe Jigsaw trousers.
Adding to the glamorous look, Kate wore her Sézane Bruna Earrings and her Halcyon Days Salamander Torque Forget-Me-Not & Gold Bangle – believed to be a gift from Prince William.
While Her Royal Highness bonded and chatted to dozen of pupils, Grace, five, became firm friends with the Princess, clutching her hand as they arrived after they sat together on the bus.
Alix Ascough, executive headteacher at All Souls, said: ‘Kate had been asked if she would have a partner, and she was sat next to Grace on the coach and Grace had chatted away to her the whole journey.’
But the youngster did not know she was holding hands with the future Queen.
‘She knew it was a very special visitor,’ added Alix. ‘We told her she was a princess. She just called her Catherine.’
She said of the bus journey: ‘The children, they’re four or five years old. They’re completely oblivious to everything that’s happening.
‘They were just like, “we’ve got a posh coach with nice lights and aircon” and Catherine was wonderful, really chatty with the children.
‘And just felt like a really relaxed journey. She was helping out with the children, helping out with their jumpers. It was just lovely.’
Alix said of the children: ‘They absolutely loved it. It was so magical, the awe and wonder. And just as they came in and they saw the tree and the magic of the day… I don’t think we’ll ever have another school trip like it!’
She said the Princess said it had been a ‘wonderful opportunity’ to be with the children in the gallery.
‘She was complimenting the children and how well behaved they were and what good artists they were because they had the opportunity to draw pictures,’ she added.
‘Those experiences that we give the children are incredibly important, and days like today, where those experiences become magical, you sow those seeds for lifelong learning.’
The Princess had emerged from the bus, which was organised by Kensington Palace, as opposed to being their normal school minibus, holding Grace’s hand.
She helped to shepherd the children into a crocodile before they made their way into the Gallery.
There were gasps of excitement as they spotted The Bobeam Tree, a life-sized model made from a metal frame covered in expanding foam and resin and topped with brightly coloured leaves.
The children were welcomed by guide Anna Husband, the NPG’s Head of Learning, who explained that they would be following a trail to help the tree grow.
Upstairs in the Ondaatje Wing, the Princess walked past portraits of Winston Churchill and a young King George VI to the first stop on the trail, a Mood Magnifying Mirror Box, with a two-way mirror for children to look into one side and identify their friends’ facial expressions from the other.
To help them, a portrait of the smiling actress Anna Neagle was pointed out and the youngsters were asked to identify how she might be feeling.
‘Happy!’ they shouted.
They were also encouraged to imitate her pose, hands on hips, which Kate did with a smile.
The group then attempted to read each others’ faces through the mirror and the Princess crouched alongside them to pull a face too.
‘What did you guess?’ she said standing up.
‘Happy!’ replied one boy.
‘Shall I do one for you?’ she asked another child.
‘Angry!’ he declared as she stood back up with a grin.
Kate joined in as the guide gave the children directions to help ensure they were focused on the task in hand, such as waving their fingers in the air, putting their hands on their knees and then on their shoulders.
They also studied a portrait of a serious-looking Charles Darwin and stood on tiptoes to imitate a pose by the ballerina Dame Darcey Bussell.
In another part of the Gallery, the children sat on beanbags to produce self-portraits using pencils and crayons.
The Princess crouched on her heels and chatted to them about their work, helping to hold paper as the children hunted for more colours and one little girl briefly sat on her lap.
Then it was time for the children to ‘feed’ their finished artworks to the tree, posting them into a cabinet with hidden trap-doors inside the drawers.
There were screams of ‘it’s disappeared!’ and ‘it’s magic’ as they closed each drawer and then checked inside them again.
‘Where’s it gone?’ asked the Princess. ‘Has it disappeared?’
One curious little boy checked the back of the cabinet.
The Princess had joined a group of four and five-year-old schoolchildren drawing self-portraits as part of a new project from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood aimed at supporting youngsters in the development of crucial social and emotional skills.
Kate and children from the school then spend time exploring how faces can express feelings and emotions.
She accompanied them as they drew themselves – an exercise introduced to encourage them to think about themselves and share their stories.
Today’s engagement came as Kate’s Centre for Early Childhood launched a new initiative, the Shaping Us Framework, in conjunction with the National Portrait Gallery, which the Princess has been Patron of since 2011.
Writing in its foreword, the princess said its aim was to ‘create a physically and mentally healthier society’.
‘That means taking a profound look at ourselves and our own behaviours, emotions and feelings, ‘ she added.
The school children will be the first pupils to take part in The Bobeam Tree Trail, which will see them journey through the gallery using portraits as the basis for a range of activities that enable them to use and develop different social and emotional skills.
The trail is based on a magical tree, which has grown inside the National Portrait Gallery.
All that is known about this rare and unusual tree, which has beautiful, colourful leaves, is that it thrives when surrounded by stories.
The children were asked to help the Bobeam Tree by taking part in activities around the Gallery to discover the stories of people through portraits – listening to audio recordings, using props, exploring facial expressions and finally, by thinking about their own lives, feelings and thoughts while creating a self-portrait.
At the end of the trail, children received the choice of whether to ‘feed’ their portrait to the tree, so it can grow big and strong.
The trail will run from February 4 to March 16 and is completely free to take part in.
Other galleries and museums, from Plymouth to Sheffield, will also be taking part in the initiative.
The princess’ latest visit comes on the back of three engagements she conducted last week, attending a Holocaust Memorial Day event in London and visiting a hospice and textile factory in South Wales.
Sources are, however, at pains to warn that her recent public duties are very much part of a ‘gradual, phased return to work ‘ following the major abdominal surgery and cancer treatment she underwent last year.
‘Some weeks you might see her more, others less,’ the source said.
As a result, today’s visit will be Kate’s only engagement his week.
The source stressed that for the next few months the princess would replicate a similar pace, undertaking intermittent engagements around her continued recovery which, along with her family, remain her absolute priority.
The source added: ‘However having conducted a highly personal visit to the Royal Marsden and spent time at two fantastic organisations in Wales, the Princess is excited to be shining a light on the importance of early childhood and the work of the Centre.’
The visit to the National Portrait Gallery comes a day after Kensington Palace released an adorable photograph of the princess ahead of World Cancer Day on Tuesday.
Kate appears to be passing the reins down to her children, as her youngest child Prince Louis turned royal photographer.
A personal message from Kate accompanied the post, reading: ‘Don’t forget to nurture all that which lies beyond the disease. C #WorldCancerDay’.
Six-year-old Louis captured his mother smiling joyfully, with her arms outstretched, during a walk in the woods over the winter period.
Photography has long been a passion for the mother-of-three and she has been patron of the Royal Photographic Society since 2019.
Kate’s skill behind the camera has seen praise from professionals and her family is her biggest muse.
In 2021, the then-Duchess of Cambridge even revealed that her children sometimes asked her to ‘please stop taking photographs’ of them, according to The Independent.
The keen amateur photographer succeeded the late Queen as the figurehead of the organisation, which was officially supported by the late monarch for 67 years.
Last week it was reported by the Sunday Times that Kensington Palace would no longer be releasing details about Kate’s ensembles on royal outings.
Explaining the decision, a source told the newspaper that there is ‘an absolute feeling that it [the public work] is not about what the princess is wearing.’
Kate is often seen supporting her favourite British brands such as Sarah Burton, who designed her wedding dress, Jenny Packham, Boden, LK Bennett and Whistles.
The royal, 43, even made headlines during an outing last Thursday by donning a frock many could relate to – a £16 houndstooth Zara dress she has worn on multiple occasions.
Since Kate officially became a member of the Royal Family in 2011, Kensington Palace would routinely issue press with details of the garments she wore to events.
But it seems that the mother-of-three is hoping to shine the spotlight away from her clothes and more on the work she does to help charities and other causes.
This comes after Kate was reportedly asked if she would like to appear on the cover of Vogue, according to the Mail on Sunday.
Anna Wintour, the magazine’s editor-in-chief and the most powerful woman in fashion, is said to have made a personal appeal to her.
The offer – which would allow Kate to choose her own photographer, be in charge of fashion choices and decide whether or not to grant an interview – is said to have been made in the past few days.
A source told the Mail on Sunday that Ms Wintour reached out via an intermediary to offer Kate her choice of global Vogue covers, including the US and UK versions.
Kate appeared on the cover of British Vogue in June 2016 to celebrate the magazine’s 100th anniversary.
