The Duchess of Cambridge visits London Early Years Foundation

29th January 2020 All Posts

The Duchess of Cambridge visits London Early Years Foundation

THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE TAKES HER LANDMARK SURVEY ON EARLY CHILDHOOD TO LEYF STOCKWELL GARDENS NURSERY & PRESCHOOL.

Today, The Duchess of Cambridge took her landmark survey to the Capital and visited London Early Years Foundation’s (LEYF) Stockwell Gardens Nursery & Pre School in the borough of Lambeth.

At the nursery, Her Royal Highness met with staff to discuss the survey ‘5 Big Questions on the Under Fives’, which was launched last week and aims to spark a UK-wide conversation on raising the next generation.

During the visit to Stockwell Gardens Nursery & Pre School, The Duchess heard about the importance of nutritious food for a child’s development from apprentices at the LEYF Early Years Chef Academy, before helping nursery teachers serve breakfast to the children.

LEYF Early Years Chef Academy offers a specialist qualification for chefs either working or keen to work with children up to the age of eight which is designed to strengthen the important roles chefs play in educating staff and parents, and influencing children’s healthy food choices.

London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) is a social enterprise (with 39 nurseries across London). It aims to add value to the life of the community and future generations by strengthening local networks and demonstrating the role that everyone has in ensuring strong, healthy foundations for the youngest in our society that will positively affect their lifelong outcomes.

As part of The Duchess’s firm commitment to her work on Early Years, this landmark survey will give people across the UK an opportunity to provide their view on raising the next generation.

The survey contains just five short questions and ultimately aims to help bring about lasting change for children, families and communities in the UK. It is designed to bring together the thoughts of as many individuals, organisations and businesses as possible – recognising that everyone has a role to play in ensuring that children have the best possible start in life.

The findings will be a vital source of information for the Early Years sector, helping it to better understand public perceptions of the importance of the early years, and the first-hand experiences of parents, families and carers. This public feedback will also help to focus Her Royal Highness’ work through The Royal Foundation as she endeavors to provide children across the UK with the best foundations to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

The launch of the survey last week follows eight years of work by The Duchess of Cambridge in which she has explored how experiences in early childhood often lie at the root of the hardest social challenges the country faces today. Her Royal Highness has spent time meeting with families across the country and hearing about the issues they deal with day-to-day. In May 2018, The Duchess convened a steering group of experts to focus on what can be done to make a positive difference to children’s lives by focusing on their earliest stage of life, from conception to age five.

June O’Sullivan MBE and CEO of LEYF says:

“We are delighted that Her Royal Highness visited our nursery in Lambeth and that she is shining a much-needed spotlight on the Early Years sector. The first few years of childhood are more pivotal for development, future health and happiness, than any other single moment of our lifetime and it’s crucial that every child has the right to a quality Early Years education that will set them up for the rest of their lives. Children whose experience of education begins as young as two are likely to have up to a year's head start and do best in national tests of reading, writing and maths at the age of seven.”