His younger siblings, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, were not present for the drop-off. Both remain at Lambrook, where George had also studied. Before the family moved to Berkshire, George and Charlotte attended Thomas’s Battersea in London.
Why did William and Catherine choose Eton?
Kensington Palace confirmed on June 16 that George would follow his father to Eton. William studied there from 1995 to 2000, while his brother, Prince Harry, attended from 1998 to 2003.
George’s arrival came 31 years and two days after William’s first day on September 6, 1995. Some reports called it exactly 31 years, but calendars remain stubbornly specific. William was also 13 when Princess Diana and the then-Prince Charles accompanied him to the school.
ABC News royal contributor Victoria Murphy said the decision suggested William had felt “happy and safe” at Eton. She added that privacy and security were likely major factors in the choice. Psychologist Sarah Suria told Marie Claire that George would still need to make the experience his own, despite the school’s close association with his father.
George is expected to become only the second future British king educated at Eton, after William. The school has also educated 20 British prime ministers, so it is not exactly unfamiliar with pupils carrying ambitious expectations.
How private can school life be for a future king?
Eton’s controlled environment may offer George more protection than many alternatives, but smartphones and social media have made royal privacy a considerably more complicated project. Signs around the campus warn visitors against photographing pupils, a sensible request that must now compete with a camera in nearly every pocket.
The staged arrival gives new boys time to settle before the full school returns. A dedicated boarding house, mentor and structured timetable should also reduce some of the disruption surrounding George’s status. None of that can make him anonymous. His classmates will be studying beside someone whose first day generated international coverage before lessons had properly begun.
William and Catherine have generally tried to preserve their children’s privacy while allowing limited public appearances. Eton now becomes central to that effort, balancing George’s security with the everyday independence boarding school is supposed to provide.
What does an Eton education cost?
Eton’s published fee for the 2026-27 academic year is £21,891 per term including VAT. That works out at £65,673 annually, before typical additional costs of £500 to £1,500 per term. Education at this level comes with extras, apparently because £65,000 was not sufficiently comprehensive.
The school also says 274 boys, representing 21 percent of its pupils, receive means-tested financial assistance. Those awards cover an average of 64 percent of fees. The figures reflect Eton’s continuing tension between centuries of inherited privilege and its efforts to broaden access.
For George, the financial calculation is unlikely to dominate family discussions. The larger test will be whether Eton can give him the same sense of security William reportedly found there, while preparing him for a public role that leaves very little room for an unobserved adolescence.
