Kate Middleton made a grand entrance to her latest engagement, joining a group of schoolchildren on their bus as they headed out for a special outing.
The Princess of Wales, 43, surprised onlookers on Feb. 4 by stepping off the bus with the kindergarteners as they arrived at the National Portrait Gallery in London, where they took part in a new initiative designed to help them explore and express their emotions.
A gaggle of children got off the bus alongside their teachers shortly before noon local time. Kate then emerged and held a little girl named Grace’s hand to walk across the concourse outside the gallery.
During her outing on Tuesday, Kate joined students from All Souls Church of England Primary School in London as they became the first to experience the Bobeam Tree Trail, an interactive journey through the gallery’s portraits designed to foster social and emotional learning.
The visit to the interactive trail at the National Portrait Gallery marked the latest step in the Princess of Wales’ mission to support early childhood development. Inspired by Princess Kate’s Shaping Us Framework, launched on Feb. 2, it was developed in collaboration with her Centre for Early Childhood and the National Portrait Gallery. The venue holds a special significance for Kate, as she became its patron in the first year of her royal life.
Teacher Alix Ascough, executive head of the school, accompanied the 15 children. She tells PEOPLE, “For the children, it was just so magical. It was an awe and wonder moment. They’ve been doing lots of artwork at school, so for them to be able to that within the gallery with the Princess was magical. It’s what memories are made of.”
“She sat with the children on the coach and chatted with them,” Ascough adds. “She was so relaxed and animated, and it just felt really natural. We’ll never have another school trip like that, will we?”
At one point, Princess Kate played “I Spy.”
“It was lovely, special,” Ascough says.
For Ascough, Princess Kate seemed like any other parent helping out, sharing that the royal was “so interested in the children and was seeing things through their eyes as well and encouraging them to talk about the pictures.”
She adds, “We do a lot of work around creativity but also around children’s emotional and mental health and talking about expressions and how we feel so this is all connected. This gives the children some context to explore some of those things.”
Liz Smith, director of learning and engagement at the National Portrait Gallery, tells PEOPLE, “We were absolutely delighted to be a place where the framework could be animated and brought to life.”
“It was a regular school trip with a very special person on the bus,” Smith adds. “That was quite deliberate. It’s planned to be for children, and it can lose that magic if you have that formal launch.”
Smith says the children were “really excited to be with her. But I think her opportunity to get down with them, to make portraits with them, to discover those stories and be one of the adults on a school trip was such a treat.”
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Kate helped the children with their portraits, sitting with them in a “cozy nook — which is our storytelling space,” Smith says, adding, “They all sat and drew and posted them into a magical cabinet where they disappeared. We might be revealing some of them.”
Princess Kate was “naturally nurturing and was listening and integrated with the group. She was one of the school party, and there was no official presentation. It was as if she was one of the mums, one of the helpers and, as you are on a school trip, you’re learning as you’re walking and making sense of the environment. It was a real treat.”
Smith adds that it “means everything” to have the Princess of Wales there to “produce an experience that’s underpinned by knowledge and expertise” and spread that message.
The outing comes three weeks after Kate announced that she is in “remission” from cancer and marks another step in her gradual return to public duties. Last week, she visited a children’s hospice in Wales — which she newly adopted as a patronage — and joined Prince William, 42, at the annual Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations.
Kate’s new Shaping Us Framework, crafted by a global coalition of academics, clinicians and human development experts, was designed to offer a universal and adaptable approach for professionals across various sectors. Her new report “lays out why early childhood is such a golden opportunity to give the next generation the most positive start in life,” Princess Kate writes in a new foreword. “But it also shows that these skills continue to grow throughout adulthood — it is never too late.”
“Modern society is complex. At times, it can feel like the world is filled with mistrust and misunderstanding, leaving many people feeling isolated and vulnerable during difficult times. The impact of this — poor mental health, addiction and abuse — can be devastating, for individuals and for society,” Kate wrote in the foreword to the report.
“If we are to address this properly, if we are to find real, lasting solutions to these deep-rooted challenges and create a physically and mentally healthier society, we must reset, restore and rebalance. We must invest in humankind,” she continued.
She added, “At the heart of all of this is the need for us to develop and nurture a set of social and emotional skills which we must prioritize if we are to thrive.”
The Shaping Us Framework kicked off two years ago in January 2023, and after its launch, Princess Kate took the campaign on the road to Leeds and elsewhere. Amid Kate’s cancer treatment and recovery, the early years were one of the subject areas she kept up with her staff as much as possible.
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