For the first time since 2022, the three Wales children didn’t all walk through the same school gates this week. Prince George began his first day at Eton College on September 8, 2026, a day ahead of his younger siblings, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, returning to Lambrook School — the prep school all three had attended together since their family’s move to Windsor.
A New Chapter for the Future King
George aged out of Lambrook this summer after turning 13, moving on to secondary school as Lambrook’s format ends at that age. Official photos released to mark the occasion showed George in his new Eton uniform alongside Prince William and Kate Middleton, with the family sharing a lighthearted moment over an umbrella mishap before crossing the school’s quad. According to coverage of the day’s events, Eton’s headmaster Simon Henderson greeted George personally alongside the school’s provost, Sir Nicholas Coleridge, as George arrived for his first day.
Why Eton, Specifically
Eton College, where both William and his brother Prince Harry were educated, had long been considered a leading contender for George’s secondary schooling, alongside Kate Middleton’s own alma mater, Marlborough College. Following the pattern the Wales family has kept with previous school transitions, the final decision wasn’t confirmed publicly until close to the start of term, consistent with how the family has historically preferred to manage its children’s education announcements.
How Lambrook Shaped the Siblings’ Early Years
Lambrook’s ethos leans heavily on outdoor and hands-on learning alongside traditional academics, including its own farm and forest school program — a notably different daily experience than the more formal environments some past royal generations attended at a similar age. For Charlotte and Louis, continuing there without George means staying in a familiar routine and social circle even as their brother adjusts to an entirely new environment across the country.
Charlotte and Louis Continue On Without Their Brother
Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, 8, returned to Lambrook’s fall term on September 9 without George for the first time since all three siblings began attending together. The co-educational prep school in Berkshire has been the family’s school of choice since their 2022 move from London to Windsor, a relocation the couple has previously said was intended to give their children a more grounded, private upbringing away from central London.
What’s Next for Charlotte’s Own Education Path
Because Eton is a boys-only school, it isn’t an option for Charlotte when she eventually ages out of Lambrook in a few years — leaving her educational next step still an open question the family hasn’t addressed publicly. Royal watchers have speculated about several co-educational options, though the Wales family’s consistent pattern of delaying school announcements until shortly before the transition makes any earlier confirmation unlikely.
A Recurring Media Moment for the Royal Family
Back-to-school photos have become a fairly reliable annual tradition for the Wales children, tracing back to Prince George’s first day at Thomas’s Battersea in 2017. The family doesn’t always release official photos for every new term, but milestone transitions — like George’s move to secondary school this year — have consistently been marked with posed portraits and brief statements, similar to how celebrity family milestones tend to generate outsized media coverage more broadly, whether the family in question is a Hollywood couple or the British royal family.
How Other Royals Have Approached This Same Transition
George isn’t the first young royal to change schools at this age — most senior royals have made a similar move from a co-educational prep school to a more specialized secondary institution around age 13. What’s different this time is the level of public documentation: modern royal family communications teams now release considerably more behind-the-scenes detail and imagery than they did even a generation ago, which is part of why this particular transition has generated as much coverage as it has.
