Open letter to Kate Middleton – Part One

A campaign to benefit ALL children with no exceptions

[For readers in other countries, Kate Middleton is part of the English royal family and has launched the ‘Shaping Us Campaign’ to create national public awareness of the critical importance of a child’s first five years.]

 

Dear Kate Middleton,

‘Shaping Us’ is a really important campaign and I wish you and everyone involved all success. I have read the executive summary of the report, ‘State of the Nation: Understanding public attitudes to the early years’. I particularly like the phrase in the Foreword ‘... to give every child in this country the very best odds in life...’.

This is refreshing. So many government initiatives talk deceptively of getting all children reading, or getting all children to be competent swimmers, or teaching all children to be computer programmers, when we know there is a percentage of children they are ignoring or forgetting who cannot achieve those goals.

I know you are sincere in wanting to raise awareness about development and learning in all children without exception. So babies and young children who have physical, sensory, psychological or intellectual impairments (or a combination of them) are very much the concern of ‘Shaping Us’. This is wonderful.

As the campaign develops, I feel confident that the benefits will be shared amongst all children and families with no one left out.

With respect and all good wishes,

Peter Limbrick