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The Prince and Princess of Wales “agreed” with their eldest child, royal biographer Robert Jobson said.
The Gist
- Prince George will turn 13 years old on July 22—officially becoming a teenager.
- In September, George is set to embark on another milestone, heading off to the all-boys boarding school Eton College, the alma mater of his father, Prince William.
- In preparation for this major life change, George has already been boarding at Lambrook—an idea he apparently suggested to his parents.
As Prince George prepares to begin at Eton College in September, he’s already ahead of the curve when it comes to one aspect of preparing for boarding school.
The decision for the soon-to-be 13-year-old future king to attend Eton was announced by Prince William and Kate Middleton’s office at Kensington Palace in June. In choosing Eton, George will follow in the footsteps of his father, the Prince of Wales, who attended Eton, as did George’s uncle Prince Harry.
Eton is an all-boys school, where students board full-time. To get George ready for this, William shared back in May that his eldest child was already boarding at Lambrook, the school George attended for years alongside his siblings Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Speaking on the “Heart Breakfast” radio show about his family’s morning routine, William said, “George was boarding last night”—which, up to that point, had been previously unknown.
The idea to board was actually George’s idea, according to a new report from The Daily Mail. After George presented the idea to his parents, “They agreed,” royal biographer Robert Jobson wrote for the outlet. “It helped him grow, to be part of a collective.”
According to Lambrook’s website, the school offers full-time boarding for children from the ages of 7 to 13, as well as flexi-boarding, which can be as little as boarding one night per week. People reported that around 75 percent of its pupils participate in some form of boarding in an effort to gradually prepare for full-time boarding schools like Eton.
“As he steps out in his tailcoat, false collar, he will look a picture,” Jobson wrote of George’s first day at Eton in just two months. “But the environment will protect him like it did his father, who thrived there. Then time. A great deal of it, let us hope, for George’s sake.”
Fellow royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith previously told People that “Eton stands for tradition, but it has moved with the times and now has a more diverse student body than it had—even in William’s day.”
“I think their decision hinges on the school’s academic excellence and the many ways it develops its students for leadership roles,” she added.
This summer will see George turn the milestone age of 13 on July 22, as well as prepare for September. “George is about to become a teenager, so it’s a huge moment for them as parents,” author Simon Vigar told Hello! of the Prince and Princess of Wales. He added that “Eton is just around the corner from where they live, so they’re going to be pretty nearby, but it’s a big summer ahead for them.”
Jobson told Hello!, “In the blink of an eye, George will be 18, and they must know that these years will fly by.”
“They’ve done a very good job bringing up the children and focusing on their own family unit,” he continued. “Despite all the other drama going on in the family, they rise above it, and seeing them out there together at events like Wimbledon is just a really positive, lovely image.”
In addition to already having practice boarding under his belt, Melanie Sanderson, managing editor of The Good Schools Guide, told People of George that she is “confident that he will be very well prepared.”
“Lambrook is really used to sending boys off to Eton,” she added, noting, “There’s probably a good handful, if not more, so there will be friendly faces.”
Because George has already boarded, “He will be used to being away from mum and dad and his siblings and used to following that routine,” Sanderson said.
William and Kate have long looked out for George, Charlotte, and Louis and have “put in boundaries to give their children an incredibly normal upbringing in the circumstances,” a friend told The Times. “How they decide when they show up at events is carefully balanced. The prince has always wanted to give them the normal upbringing that he didn’t have.”
As George heads off to Eton, “The kindest thing they could do for his future is to let him go and be a teenager at secondary school, far away from the pressures of his role and the glare of the media,” royal biographer Christopher Wilson told The Telegraph. “There will be enough of that once he becomes an adult. William will know that better than anyone.”
Read the original article on InStyle
