Duchess of Cambridge talks home schooling with Kingsbury parents

Kate spoke candidly about the challenges of looking after Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis during a light-hearted chat with a group of parents at Roe Green Junior School, in Princes Avenue.

Duchess of Cambridge during a video call with parents whose children attend Roe Green Junior School in Kingsbury (Image: Kensington Palace/PA Wire)

The Duchess joked about her children recoiling in "horror" when she became their hairdresser and revealed husband William was her biggest support during the pandemic.

As part of a "show and tell" exercise during the video call on Tuesday (January 26), headteacher Melissa Loosemore instructed the group to write down answers to questions including - "one word that describes parenting during this pandemic".

The future queen wrote "exhausting" while others joined in with similar sentiments including "hectic", "patience" and "challenging".

Kate explained: "I think as parents you've the day-to-day elements of being a parent, but I suppose during lockdown we have had to take on additional roles that perhaps others in our communities, or in our lives, would have perhaps supported us and helped us with."

She cited becoming a hairdresser and a teacher adding: "I feel pulled in so many different directions and you try your best with everything, but at the end of the day I do feel exhausted."

Ms Loosemore said: "Absolutely, absolutely. I think that is probably something we can all share."

Mum Nicole Seidemann, who has four children aged 11, nine, six and four, agreed describing herself as "definitely a full-time teacher right now and struggling to do much else".

Parents were also asked to write down who had been their support during the pandemic.

As the other parents wrote "children", "wife and children" and "husband", Kate wrote "William".

Asked to rate their maths ability after months of home schooling parents gave themselves "eight" saying they had "improved dramatically" while Kate scored herself a "minus 5".

"I am obviously right at the bottom of the class," she joked.

The duchess visited the school in 2018 to launch her Mentally Healthy Schools programme.

She asked the group what they did for their own mental wellbeing.

She added: "Being able to share your own experience with others who are going through the same thing makes it feel less daunting and makes you feel less isolated, so it's really important to reach out to loved ones and friends."