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Prince George and Princess Charlotte Head Back to School in Early September

Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images
Photo credit: Samir Hussein - Getty Images

From Town & Country

Last summer, Prince Philip retired at the age of 96 after decades of service, so it’s safe to say that the life of a working royal is a lengthy one-and one that requires a multitude of skills.

Like most kids in the UK, royal children begin their education with nursery school at the age of two and a half, but unlike their peers, heirs to the throne like Prince George and Princess Charlotte will receive some very specific extra-curricular instruction along the way. Here's what their full royal education will look like.

Nursery Schooling

Photo credit: Duchess of Cambridge/Getty Images
Photo credit: Duchess of Cambridge/Getty Images


Traditionally, members of the British and have been educated at home, starting at the nursery stage with a governess. Prince Charles received nursery instruction at Buckingham Palace from Catherine Peebles (known by the prince as Mispy), as did his younger sister Princess Anne and brothers Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.

But by the early 1980s, times had changed, and William and Harry became the first generation of royals to attend a separate nursery school. William started at Mrs. Mynor’s right around the corner from Kensington Place in 1985 at the age of three, and Harry followed two years afterward.

Three decades later, Prince George started at Westacre Montessori School when he was 2 1/2, and the family was living in Norfolk. Princess Charlotte started attending Willcocks Nursery School at the same age, after the family had moved to London. It looks likely that Prince Louis will also attend Willcocks, but not for a few years.

Pre Prep School

Photo credit: Bettmann - Getty Images
Photo credit: Bettmann - Getty Images

When the Queen was a young girl, she was home-schooled alongside her sister Princess Margaret, by their governess Marion Crawford (known to them as Crawfie), and assorted tutors including Henry Marten, the vice-provost of prestigious Eton College. Prince Charles similarly started on his academic journey behind palace walls with a governess and tutors, until it was decided that he would be educated outside of the home. Members of the royal family do not attend state-funded schools, so like many other wealthy Brits, they start young at the best private schools.

Pre Prep is the term for schools that take children from reception age (what we call kindergarten) for the next three years, and the aim is to funnel them into "prep schools" for the next stage of their education. Charles attended Hill House in West London-a mixed gender establishment that educates children to be in a world community-while William and Harry both went to Wetherby in Kensington from the ages of five to eight.

Prince George started at Thomas’s in Battersea, London in 2017 at age four and Princess Charlotte will likely follow her big brother there in 2019.

Prep School

Photo credit: Martin Keene - PA Images - Getty Images
Photo credit: Martin Keene - PA Images - Getty Images

Preparatory school is the second stage of a fee-paying primary school education, and it takes children from the ages of eight to 13. The aim of a prep school is to prepare pupils (hence the name) for the Common Entrance Exam, which will feed them into one of the UK’s most prestigious private secondary schools.

The past two generations of royals have followed in the footsteps of patriarch Prince Philip, and started boarding school at the age of 8.

As a young boy Philip was sent to Cheam just outside London, and it’s where he subsequently sent his son Prince Charles at the same age-although Charles didn’t respond as well as his father had to boarding school.

William and Harry were both full-time boarders at the age of eight, attending Ludgrove School in the Berkshire countryside, where boys are encouraged to build dens and camps in the countryside and grow their own flowers and vegetables in the shared gardens. It’s not yet known if Prince George will become a boarding pupil at the age of eight, but since his current school Thomas’s takes children up to the age of 13, he has the option to remain there and live at home until he finishes his final year.

Secondary School

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Photo credit: William Vanderson - Getty Images

Gordonstoun in Fife, Scotland has been a popular choice for the royals for secondary school, and is the alma mater of Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Peter Phillips, and Zara Tindall. Charles hated his experience there, later describing his time at the school as a "disastrous one."

Marlborough College in Wiltshire was the school of choice for Kate Middleton and her sister Pippa, as well as Princess Eugenie, who got the best exam results in the royal family, achieving two As and a B on her Art, English Literature, and History of Art A levels (a British standardized test).

Photo credit: Anwar Hussein - Getty Images
Photo credit: Anwar Hussein - Getty Images

And William and Harry both attended Eton College in Windsor, which couldn’t come with a higher royal pedigree as it was founded in 1440 by Henry VI. Both William and Harry made lifelong friends there, although it’s been reported that Harry struggled academically because of his dyslexia. It seems likely that Prince George will follow in the footsteps of his father and uncle Harry by going to Eton.

Gap year

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Photo credit: Pool/Tim Graham Picture Library - Getty Images

The gap year is a modern phenomenon that the most recent generation of the royal family has enthusiastically embraced. It's now common practice for students in England to take a year taken between finishing secondary education and moving onto higher education. It is usually used for travel and work with the aim of giving teenagers a broad range of life experiences.

William trained with Welsh Guards in Belize, undertook voluntary work in Chile and Africa, and worked on British dairy farms, while Kate did volunteer work in Chile, studied at the British Institute in Florence, Italy, and crewed Round the World Challenge boats in the UK. Harry worked as a ranch hand in Australia, spent time on a polo farm in Argentina, and undertook volunteer work in Lesotho, Africa.

University

Photo credit: Handout - Getty Images
Photo credit: Handout - Getty Images

Higher education is also a modern phenomenon for members of the royal family. Princess Anne went straight into royal life at the age of 18, becoming president of the charity Save The Children by the age of 20, while Prince Andrew went straight into the military.

Prince Charles, however, was the first heir to the throne to get a university degree, studying archaeology and anthropology before switching to history at Trinity College Cambridge. Other members of the royal family have since followed in his footsteps by pursuing degrees in the humanities at university.

Both William and Kate famously studied art history at the prestigious St Andrews University in Scotland, but William later changed his major to Geography. Princess Beatrice studied history at Goldsmiths in London, and Princess Eugenie graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in english and art history.

Photo credit: Ian Nicholson - PA Images - Getty Images
Photo credit: Ian Nicholson - PA Images - Getty Images

For their parts, Princess Anne’s children moved away from the humanities. Peter Phillips studied sports science at Exeter University and his sister Zara Tindall followed him there, earning her degree in physiotherapy. Prince Harry skipped university altogether and went straight into military, but Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex studied theater and international relations at Northwestern, and interned at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Military

Photo credit: Matt Cardy - Getty Images
Photo credit: Matt Cardy - Getty Images

Since the monarch acts as head of the UK Armed Forces, male members of the royal family have all traditionally gone into the military. Prince Philip served in the Royal Navy, seeing action in World War II, while Prince Charles served in the Royal Air Force. Prince Andrew followed his father into the Navy, serving time in the Falklands War, while William and Harry both attended officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. William served as a pilot with the Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Force, while Harry went on to serve with the British Army in Helmand, Afghanistan for more than two months.

Specialized Royal Instruction

A royal education doesn’t end at the school gates or in a lecture hall. Every senior member of the family will go through training with the Special Air Services (SAS) and learn how to deal with dangerous situations, including a terror attack or attempted kidnapping. Senior royals also go on a specialist tactical driving course, designed to get them out of trouble if they are ever in a hostile situation.

There is also a training in all the areas that members of the royal family need to feel comfortable, including international relations, constitutional history, and public speaking, as well as ongoing briefings ahead of engagements, state visits, and overseas tours regarding the socio-economic, cultural, religious, and political matters of that area.

Additional Courses and Work Experience

As the future monarch, Prince William put in some time at the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, Lloyds of London, and Billingsgate Fish Market in order to have a “much better understanding of how all the different financial institutions work and how they fit together,” as he put it at the time.

Photo credit: Tim Graham - Getty Images
Photo credit: Tim Graham - Getty Images

William also completed a ten week agricultural management course in 2014, as he will one day inherit his father’s Duchy of Cornwall estate. In the distant future, we might see Prince George embark on a similar series of apprenticeships.

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