The Prince and Princess of Wales’s children, Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, ten, and Prince Louis, seven, are among the thousands of youngsters to return to their classrooms this week after the summer holidays. The royal siblings attend Lambrook Prep School in Berkshire, with George starting his final year ahead of his school move next summer.
While George, Charlotte and Louis have always had royal titles from birth, they don’t actually use these at school. Instead the royal children are known simply as George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales to their school friends, in a nod to their parents’ titles, the Prince and Princess of Wales, which they were given following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.
When William and Kate were known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, their children used Cambridge as a last name at their previous schools. This was also the case for Prince William and Prince Harry, who took on their father Charles’s former title Wales as their surname when they were at school.
© Getty ImagesGeorge, Charlotte and Louis, who spent part of their summer on their grandfather King Charles’s Scottish estate, Balmoral, will now be in Year 8, Year 6 and Year 3 respectively at school.
Which school the Wales will choose for their firstborn has already been the subject of much speculation. Will they follow tradition and send him to William’s alma mater, Eton, or will they follow a less conventional route and send him to a day school like Highgate?
To shed light on the matter, The HELLO! Royal Club’s Millie spoke to Melanie Sanderson, managing editor of The Good Schools Guide, who shared her thoughts on the reported shortlist and exclusively revealed the school she backs as being the best of option for George.
Royal family’s surname
Members of the royal family often do not use a surname, they’re simply known by their title, name and His or Her Royal Highness. But the royal family’s website states: “At a meeting of the Privy Council on 17 July 1917, George V declared that ‘all descendants in the male line of Queen Victoria, who are subjects of these realms, other than female descendants who marry or who have married, shall bear the name of Windsor’.”