The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are set to move their family to Windsor, with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all starting at the same new school, it was announced on Monday.
The royal couple are moving to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor’s Home Park, and the children will join the co-educational private Lambrook School near Ascot in Berkshire in September.
Kensington Palace said in a statement that the duke and duchess were “hugely grateful” to Thomas’s Battersea Prep School where George and Charlotte had a “happy start to their education” and were “pleased to have found a school for all three of their children which shares a similar ethos and values to Thomas’s”.
What is Lambrook School?
Lambrook is a prestigious prep school with 615 boys and girls aged 3 to 13.
It educates children mostly from "professional and business backgrounds" who live within 15 minutes of the school, according to the latest inspection report.
It's set over 21 hectares in the Berkshire countryside, with features including a private orchard and a nine-hole golf course within the grounds.
There are also other facilities such as a 25-metre swimming pool, a cricket pitch, sports courts, a performing arts and dance studios, plus a sports hall.
There's a focus on sustainability within the curriculum, and as part of that the Lambrook Orchard is home to pigs, chickens, rabbits, bees and lambs. Children take beekeeping lessons, grow fruit and vegetables, as well as build and install bird houses.
What are the fees?
Annual school fees for children of Prince George's age are £20,997 ($24,719), while for Princess Charlotte's age group it's £19,344 and for Prince Louis, it's £13,167.
The day and boarding school offers weekly and flexi boarding for the older two children — where they can opt for a night’s stay as and when they choose, but George and Charlotte will be day pupils for now.
Overall, William and Kate will be spending in excess of £53,000 a year on their children’s private education.
The history of Lambrook
There has been a private school at Winkfield Row since 1860, according to the Lambrook website. That's when Robert Burnside acquired Lambrook House and aimed to tutor the sons of courtiers of Windsor Castle.
In 1878, two of Queen Victoria's grandsons — Prince Christian Victor and Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein — became pupils at Lambrook, and Queen Victoria would travel between Windsor and the school to watch them play in cricket matches.
Lambrook evolved into a popular preparatory school for boys who would board. In 1992, it began to accept day pupils and the co-educational pre-prep opened soon after.
Five years later, it merged with Haileybury Junior School in Windsor, which also educated boys aged 7 to 13 on a day and boarding basis.
In 2009, Lambrook, which by then also had a nursery, became independent again and is now a charitable trust.
The Good Schools Guide describes how youngsters get to “run and run” in vast grounds with “total freedom to explore, provided you’ve got your wellies on”, with Lambrook’s pastoral care described as excellent.
Jonathan Perry, headmaster at Lambrook, said we “very much look forward to welcoming the family, as well as all of our new pupils, to our school community”.
This is the first time Lambrook has been chosen for a future king and his siblings.
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