The Prince and Princess of Wales have visited to two schools attended by the children who were murdered in the Southport attack last year.
The royal couple also met in private with the parents of victim Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, who was a pupil at Farnborough Road Infant and Junior School.
Elsie was murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July 2024, along with two other young girls Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, and Bebe King, 6.
Eight more children and two adults were also injured during the knife attack by then 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana.
Visiting Churchtown Primary School, which Alice and Bebe attended, the couple were shown around a new playground which was built in their memory after a fundraising campaign.
In a speech in front of the school’s 700 pupils, William said: “This playground is a symbol of how the community have come together to create such a positive space for the pupils of this school, a symbol of remembrance and resilience, a testament that love will always overcome tragedy.”
He said the teaching communities at the school and also at Elsie’s school, which they visited earlier in the day, had gone “above and beyond to help heal this incredible group of young people”.
He added: “To Alex and Sergio, Lauren and Ben, Jenni and David – you are parents united in grief. You have faced such horror, but from that you move forward with grace and fortitude, creating the most remarkable legacies for your girls. We will always be here to support you.”
After hearing some of the children speak about how the artwork reflected their emotions, Kate said: “It’s very unusual for young people to be able to express bad and hard and difficult emotions like you’ve done, and actually doing it through art is really clever, but really expressive.”
William and Kate also spent over an hour at Farnborough Road School and another 30 minutes with Elsie’s bereaved parents, Jenni, 36, and David Stancombe, 37.
They also spoke to the headteachers about how the school and pupils were coping since the attack.
The school’s headteachers thanked the royal couple for showing solidarity during a “tremendously stressful” year, after the attack had a devastating impact on the community.
Jennie Sephton, head of the infants’ school, said: “It’s made such a big difference.”
Upon arrival at the school, the royal couple were greeted by hundreds of children excitedly waving union flags. Both royals spoke to members of the student council, with Kate crouching down to speak to the infants while William spoke to the juniors.
The children were in for a surprise as they had only been told minutes before that the special guests were visiting their school.
Ellis Paynter, 10, said: “We were shocked! I was like, ‘We get to talk to the prince?’”
Jessica Hazelhurst, 10, said: “All of the teachers didn’t get to find out until break time. We all came into school thinking we were getting photos for school council, but then it was this.”
Today’s royal appearance marks William and Kate’s second visit to Southport, having previously visited in the wake of the attack and the riots afterwards.
They met and hugged the families of the three girls during a visit in October last year, and also thanked the emergency services who responded to the attack.
Last year’s unannounced trip to Merseyside was William and Kate’s first official outing together since the Princess of Wales’ chemotherapy treatment ended.
