PRAISING HOW PRINCE LOUIS'S SCHOOL HELPS CHILDREN HANDLE EMOTIONS THE PRINCESS OF WALES GATHERS GLOBAL EXPERTS AT SUMMIT TO DRIVE HER KEY EARLY YEARS CAMPAIGN

The Princess of Wales’s passion for early years is making its mark close to home. Ahead of a major speech on the subject last week, she revealed how her younger son, five-year-old Prince Louis, is benefiting from early childhood development work at his school.

- EMILY NASH

Kate, regal in a vibrant purple trouser suit, told broadcaster Fearne Cotton that work to improve children’s emotional development is already under way at Lambrook School in Berkshire, where all of the Prince and Princess’s three children study.

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She said: “[In] Louis’s class, they came back with a feelings wheel; 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 represent how they feel that day, so there is a real keenness in school particularly to get involved in conversations.

“It’s actually helping continuity across the board, and then how does that feed into you, with your mental health?

“It’s the same conversation, so to be able to find a bit of framework to talk about this is very important.”

Kate and Fearne were preparing to go on stage at the Shaping Us National Symposium at London’s Design Museum, where the Princess had gathered global experts in early childhood and political heavyweights including former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair and Lord Hague, chair of the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

In a keynote speech – her longest and most significant to date – Kate called for the development of social and emotional skills in children to be prioritised, saying they are “just as valuable to our long-term success as reading, writing or arithmetic”.

The Princess, 41, has made the subject her life’s work, having long highlighted the connection between difficulties in childhood and social problems in later life, such as addiction, mental ill health, family breakdown and homelessness.