Royal First Days: How Prince George, Charlotte and Louis Started School, and What Every Parent Can Borrow

Where did Prince George, Charlotte and Louis start school?

Kensington Palace announced George's school months ahead. The BBC reported in March 2017 that he would go to Thomas's Battersea, a private primary a few miles from Kensington Palace, after a Montessori nursery in Norfolk. His parents said they were "delighted" and "confident George will have a happy and successful start to his education".

Charlotte went to Willcocks Nursery School near Kensington Palace from January 2018, then joined her brother at Thomas's in September 2019, where she was known as Charlotte Cambridge, according to her Wikipedia entry. Louis started at the same nursery in April 2021. When the family moved to Windsor in 2022, all three children began at Lambrook, a prep school for children aged 3 to 13 set in the Berkshire countryside.

Why did the royal children use a surname at school?

Royal children don't usually need a surname. At school they do, because every register, exercise book and coat peg needs one. So George and Charlotte used the name of their parents' title, Cambridge, just as a child in Pune or Patna writes their family name on the first page of a new notebook.

We love this detail because it's so ordinary. However grand the family, the first day of school comes down to the same small question every teacher asks: whose is this?

What can parents learn from a royal first day of school?

Strip out the cameras and the palace, and the first days look a lot like ours.

• Talk about the school before the day. The family announced the school months in advance. At home, that's the same as driving past the gate a few times and naming the teacher.
• Keep the goodbye short. A hug, a "see you at pick-up", and leave. Lingering usually makes it harder for the child.
• Siblings help. Charlotte joined a school where her brother already was. If your younger one is starting where an older one goes, let the older child show them their classroom.
• A move is a fresh start for everyone. When the family relocated in 2022, all three children changed school together. If you are moving cities mid-year, starting everyone on the same day keeps it simpler.

However grand the family, the first day of school comes down to one small question every teacher asks: whose is this?

What should a child take on the first day of school?

Every school sends its own list, but the first-day school kit is usually the same: the school bag, a water bottle, a tiffin, covered books and, for the little ones, a pouch with a spare set of clothes. The part parents forget is the name. A class of 30 often has five identical navy sweaters and ten steel bottles that look the same, and by the second week something has gone home with the wrong child.

Almost missed this Label the lid and the box of a tiffin separately. They get washed apart, and lids are the first thing to vanish.

If you want a full list, our parent checklist of which school items to label goes item by item.

How do I get my child ready the week before school starts?

Royal or not, the week before is where most of the calm comes from. Prince William himself started at a nursery in Notting Hill at the age of three, the BBC noted in the same report, so even he had a first goodbye at a classroom door. A few things that help any child:

• Shift bedtime early. Move it back by 15 minutes a night so the first school morning isn't a shock.
• Do a practice run. Uniform on, bag packed, out of the door at the real time, once.
• Read a starting-school story together. Let them ask the questions they are too shy to ask the teacher.

How we can help

A first day is emotional enough without a lost sweater on top. Our school name labels and clothes labels put your child's name on the uniform, bottle and books in an evening, so the only thing you have to think about on the morning is the goodbye.