After months of speculation, it’s official: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis will all become day pupils at Lambrook School in Berkshire next month—the first time all three Cambridge kids have ever gone to the same school. (George and Charlotte have attended school together for years at Thomas’s Battersea; at four years old, this is Louis’ first time to join his older siblings in an academic environment.)
Their parents, Prince William and Kate Middleton, announced today their official choice of schools, ahead of their upcoming relocation from Kensington Palace in London to Adelaide Cottage at Windsor, where they will live in close proximity to the Queen, who made her permanent residence Windsor Castle. (The Cambridges will also be closer to Kate’s family, the Middletons, who live about 40 minutes away in Bucklebury.)
“Their Royal Highnesses are hugely grateful to Thomas’s Battersea, where George and Charlotte have had a happy start to their education since 2017 and 2019, respectively, and are pleased to have found a school for all three of their children which shares a similar ethos and values,” the couple announced via a release from their office at Kensington Palace.
Although Lambrook does offer boarding options, George, Charlotte, and Louis will be what is called “day pupils,” where they attend during the day then come home for evenings. (Historically, boarding is the more common option for royals—both Prince Philip and Prince Charles boarded at Cheam School from the age of eight, and later, perhaps infamously, at Gordonstoun in Scotland, according to PEOPLE. William and younger brother Prince Harry began boarding at Ludgrove School around George’s age—nine.)
“We are delighted that Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis will be joining us this coming September and very much look forward to welcoming the family, as we all as all of our new pupils, to our school community,” said Jonathan Perry, headmaster at Lambrook.
George had been at Thomas’s Battersea since 2017, with Charlotte following behind in 2019. Louis had been attending Willcocks Nursery School, as Charlotte once did.
The choice of Lambrook comes after William and Kate toured several schools in the area ahead of their move. PEOPLE reports that George will likely remain at Lambrook until he leaves for a senior school, like Eton College, where William attended until he was 18.
And Lambrook has plenty of amenities the Cambridge kids might enjoy—according to PEOPLE, the countryside school offers everything from a scuba diving club to an indoor pool to classes in filmmaking and animation to beekeeping, a nine-hole golf course, and polo. The school is coeducational, allowing all three kids to attend, and is set on 52 acres just outside of Windsor. It has approximately 560 pupils and is known as one of the top prep schools in the U.K.
“They are such an outdoorsy family,” a source who knows the Cambridges told PEOPLE of the move. “London just wasn’t working for them anymore. The countryside is definitely their happy place.”
