To celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary yesterday, The Prince and Princess of Wales visited an organisation which has benefitted from their Royal Wedding Chariftable Gift Fund in 2011: IntoUniversity.
The couple were joined by Year 5 students from Victory Primary School at the charity’s Walworth location, in south east London, on their crystal anniversary.
The children took part in one of the charity’s programmes of free immersive educational activities and workshops, supporting student’s aspirations, attainment and development of key skills to promote success in school and beyond.
These ‘FOCUS Days’ are developed to introduce students to life at university and inspire interests in future study. The specific lesson today was an exploration of astronomy, team-based challenges and a creative design task focused on living in space.
The education charity that aims to help young people reach their full potential in education and beyond. It was one of 26 that benefited from William and Catherine’s gift fund, set up so that anyone who wanted to give the royal couple a wedding gift could instead donate to one of the couples selected charities.
The fund raised over £1 million for causes close to both of their hearts, and were chosen as smaller organisations without royal patronage or much profile. William and Kate focused on the areas of Changing Lives through Arts and Sport, Children Fulfilling Their Potential, Help and Care at Home, Support for Service Personnel and Their Families, and Conservation for Future Generations.
A similar scheme was launched when their youngest child, Prince Louis, was born in 2018.
The first IntoUniversity centre opened in 2002 as a local, neighbourhood response to young people who were leaving school with few qualifications. The charity was in its early stages at the time of the royal wedding and having benefited from the Gift Fund has allowed them to continue to provide pastoral and academic support to young people facing disadvantages.
Since 2011, the charity has expanded from six centres in London to 45 centres and extension projects in 28 towns and cities across England and Scotland; their next milestone is to reach 50 centres by 2027.
The Chief Executive and Co-Founder of IntoUniversity, Rachel Carr said: ‘15 years ago, Their Royal Highnesses’ Royal Wedding Gift Fund provided generous support at a crucial moment for IntoUniversity. It not only helped us to continue our work, but also gave us the confidence to grow’.
She continued: ‘Today, we are supporting tens of thousands of young people across the UK each year, and it was a privilege to share a part of that work with Their Royal Highnesses in person.
‘We remain deeply grateful for the support of the Royal Wedding Gift Fund which has had a lasting impact on so many lives, and to Their Royal Highnesses for visiting IntoUniversity Walworth. It was a truly memorable day for our young people and the charity, one we will be talking about for years to come’.
This surprise visit came after William and Catherine posted a family photograph on social media with the caption ‘Celebrating 15 years of marriage’. The photograph was taken by Matt Porteous during their family holiday in Cornwall over Easter.
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After the engagement the couple had lunch at the Goring Hotel in London, where Catherine stayed the night before tying the knot.
