The Princess of Wales launches an interactive trail to support social and emotional development in under fives

The Princess of Wales joined a group of four and five-year-old school children at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) to launch a new project from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood aimed at supporting young children in the development of crucial social and emotional skills.

The interactive trail is based on the new Shaping Us Framework and has been developed by the Centre for Early Childhood and the NPG, which The Princess has been Patron of since 2011. The aim of the framework is to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of social and emotional skills across society.

Pupils from All Souls CE Primary School in London were the first children to take part in The Bobeam Tree Trail, which saw 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 are 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 can choose to feed their portrait to the tree, so it grows big and strong.

During her visit to the NPG, The Princess joined the children and their teachers for part of the trail during which they spent time together exploring how faces can express feelings and emotions. She also accompanied them as they drew self-portraits, an exercise to encourage them to think about their own stories.

This is the first project to be created based on the new Shaping Us Framework from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. The framework draws on the expertise of academics, clinicians, and practitioners in human development from across the globe. It has been developed to provide a universal and flexible way for people across all sectors to unite around, and drive action on, the core social and emotional skills that matter most in enabling us to live happy, healthy lives.

These are the skills that shape who we are, how we manage our emotions and thoughts, how we communicate with and relate to others, and how we explore the world around us. They are fundamental to our future mental and physical well-being, shaping everything from our ability to form positive relationships, to our capacity for learning, working, and coping with adversity. They all have their foundations in early childhood and continue to be refined and enhanced throughout our lives.

The Bobeam Tree Trail at the National Portrait Gallery will run from Tuesday 4 February to Sunday 16 March 2025 and is completely free to take part in. All are welcome – from nursery and reception groups to families with young children, and there are also related activities on the NPG website to do from home.

Whilst at the Gallery, The Princess met Victoria Siddall, the newly appointed Director of the National Portrait Gallery, as well as Chief Executives and expert practitioners from five other galleries from around the UK who will be working with The Centre for Early Childhood to consider how they could amplify the new Shaping Us Framework in their own organisations to support the social and emotional development of thousands more children around the country.

The Centre for Early Childhood is also working with organisations across a variety of sectors, on how the framework can be used to promote social and emotional skills across society.