he Duchess of Cambridge showed her playful side as she whizzed down a slide in Denmark during a rare solo overseas visit to promote her work on early childhood education.
Kate is spending two days in the capital Copenhagen on a working visit with her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
She laughed as she pushed herself down the twirly slide during a visit to the Lego Foundation Play Lab in Copenhagen on Tuesday afternoon.
She visited the Play Lab to meet students who are training to be early years professionals.
Kate travelled by a scheduled flight to the capital Copenhagen on Tuesday afternoon to begin the visit.
The Duchess of Cambridge visits Denmark
Kate, 40, who is representing the Queen abroad, will meet Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, who is celebrating her golden jubilee in the same year of Her Majesty’s Platinum jubilee.
The Duchess will also spend time in the company of Crown Princess Mary, wife of the heir to the throne and a woman who bears an uncanny similarity to Kate in many aspects.
During the visit Kate will learn about the country’s approach to the early years development of children that has made it a world leader.
The duchess first visited the University of Copenhagen to meet researchers from the Copenhagen Infant Mental Health Project which aims to promote the mental wellbeing of, and relationships between, infants and their parents.
Academics have developed an innovative screening tool, the Alarm Distress Baby Scale, used to help health visitors identify infants at risk of adverse social and emotional development.
The duchess will meet leading researchers running the initiative and will hear from health visitors who are implementing these tools in their work.
Alongside the screening tool, academics have launched the Understanding Your Baby research project which provides further training for health visitors so they can help new parents as they begin to notice and interpret their babies’ behavioural cues.
At Copenhagen’s Children’s Museum the duchess met a few of the 1,300 first-time parents benefiting from the project, begun in 2019 and ending in July, that involves more than 200 health workers.
Kate’s final event of the day was the trip to the Lego Foundation PlayLab at University College Copenhagen where she joined students training to be early years professionals, taking part in activities.
Kate announced the trip in a personal tweet posted earlier this month on the Kensington Royal’s Twitter account.
She shared a video of her hands, with her large sapphire and diamond engagement ring on show, making the word Denmark and the country’s flag out of Lego.
In a personal message, the duchess wrote: “Looking forward to learning from experts, parents & practitioners about Denmark’s approach to early childhood later this month.
“Denmark is a beacon of best practice in its approach to the early years, with a culture which prioritises the best start in life.”
She ended the message with the Danish words “Pa snarligt gensyn”, which translate as “See you soon”, and the letter “C” to denote a personal tweet.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge with Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary during a visit to Copenhagen in 2011
/ AFP via Getty ImagesA Kensington Palace spokeswoman, speaking when the trip was first announced, said: “The duchess is looking forward to visiting the country, learning from the Danish people, and continuing to build on the already close friendship between the two countries.”
Denmark is considered a beacon of best practice with its approach to early childhood, as well as consistently ranking near the top of countries with the happiest people in the world.
In 2011, Prince William and Kate travelled to the Danish capital, just a few months after their wedding.
