Good morning, everybody, and thank you very much for being here today.
I hope you'll find it interesting and insightful.
I'm certainly looking forward to it.
And we've got some fantastic speakers.
So thank you to all of you for your time, support and commitment.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Christian, who's led the centre and built many of the relationships here today.
Thank you, Christian, for holding the fort, particularly over the last couple of years.
So my passion and the work of the Centre for Early Childhood stems from one essential truth, that the love we feel in our earliest years fundamentally shapes who we become and how we thrive as adults.
Love is the first and most essential bond, but it's also the invisible thread woven with time, attention and tenderness through consistent nurturing relationships, which creates the grounded and meaningful environments around a child.
It is this texture, the weave of love, which forms a child's emotional world and becomes the foundation, the very fabric of resilience and belonging.
