Kensington Palace has released a short clip of the Duchess of Cambridge before she leads an online assembly for school pupils on Thursday. Kate willl dial in to chat with pupils as part of the Oak National Academy online classroom programme, where she will speak to pupils about the importance of kindness, based on a lesson plan which is available on the Mentally Healthy Schools platform.
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During the assembly, the Duchess will say: "Talking to someone, whether it’s a friend, family member, or teacher, is something you can do to make yourself feel that little bit better. And you can also play your part in helping others to feel better too, whether offering a friendly ear, or helping someone in need. Small acts of kindness can go such a long way. But as we help others, we mustn’t forget to nurture ourselves, by taking the time to focus on the things that make us feel happy too."
Oak National Academy is an online classroom providing high-quality video lessons and free resources to parents and teachers. It was created in response to the lockdown, supporting teachers educating their pupils remotely, and since its launch has delivered over 12 million lessons to children and young people. Every Thursday morning, the academy, in collaboration with TES, hosts assemblies for students across the UK, allowing them to experience the normal routine of a school environment.
As part of the assembly, the Duchess joined a video call with students from Waterloo Primary Academy in Blackpool, whose parents have been working on the frontline during the coronavirus pandemic. The children shared photographs they had taken and submitted to the Duchess's Hold Still photography project, based around one of its central themes, 'Acts of Kindness,' and discussed some of the ways they had been spreading kindness themselves in recent weeks. The assembly will go live on the Oak National Academy website at 11am on Thursday 18 June.
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© Kensington PalaceKate spoke to children about the importance of kindness
The Mentally Healthy Schools site was launched in 2018 by The Duchess as a legacy of The Royal Foundation's Heads Together campaign, developed by leading children's mental health charities The Anna Freud Centre, Young Minds and Place2Be. The site is now managed by the Duchess' patronage, The Anna Freud Centre.
Prince William and Kate have been homeschooling their eldest children, Prince George, six, and Princess Charlotte, five, who are in Year 2 and Reception at Thomas's Battersea school in west London.
In an appearance on This Morning in May, Kate said that George wasn't so happy about the fact that his little sister was getting more exciting school projects. The Duchess said: "George gets very upset because he wants to do Charlotte's projects. Because making things like spider sandwiches is far cooler than doing literacy work!"
Kate's latest engagement comes after William made his first in-person visit in three months to King's Lynn Ambulance Station at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Tuesday. The Duke was among the first members of the royal family to do so, along with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, who carried out a socially distanced visit to the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, while the Princess Royal made a trip to the Duke of Gloucester Barracks.
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