Kate: I’ll do the school run myself

George to be driven there and back to ‘give him normality’

THE countdown to ‘ big school’ is on for little Prince George.

And before he starts at Thomas’s in September, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will no doubt be getting his uniform ready – not to mention checking the route for the school run.

For even though they have an army of staff who could do it for them, Kate and William intend to drop off and pick up their son from the school gates.

The future king will join the £5,650 a-term pre-preparatory school in Battersea, south west London, in the autumn, two months after his fourth birthday.

The site of the school, in the heart of what is known locally as ‘nappy valley’, a wealthy enclave largely populated by bankers, media types and ‘yummy mummies’, is a good four miles from the family’s home at Kensington Palace.

The journey over the Thames each morning will take the royals at least half an hour – on a good day – battling through the rush hour traffic.

But there will be no attempt to beat the queues using the ‘Blues and twos’, courtesy of a police escort. Instead, William or Kate will try to drop George off each morning themselves, depending on their work schedules, with nanny Maria Borrallo taking up the slack.

‘They are very hands- on parents and although they acknowledge that it might cause a bit of a buzz to start with, they are hopeful it will soon settle down,’ said a source.

‘It’s very important to both of them that George enjoys as normal a childhood as possible, particularly as he settles into a new school, and for them this includes dropping him off at the school gates.’

Last month Kate also told one set of Thomas’s parents she bumped into at an official function: ‘See you at the school gate.’

One fellow parent joked: ‘The fact that they drive a Range Rover means they will fit in very well here during drop-off!’

George, whose birthday in July will make him one of the youngest in his year, could have gone to Thomas’s sister school in upmarket Kensington, just a short stroll from home.

But the couple plumped for the Thomas’s Battersea outpost as it encapsulated the ‘village’ feel they were looking for.

‘Kate wants George – and later Charlotte – to have the same school experience that she did as a child.

‘ Both she and William very much agree on this and think George Pre-prep: Thomas’s in Battersea will be very, very happy there,’ said a source.

And if the proud parents are wondering what their little prince might look like when he starts at Thomas’s, then the Daily Mail can offer them a sneak preview.

Of course these tongue-in- cheek photographs aren’t of George himself. Instead they were posed by a child model with the heir to the throne’s head superimposed.

Still, the remarkably realistic images give a very good indication of how William and Kate’s loveable ‘little monkey’ might scrub up in the autumn – and doesn’t he look a smart chap?

The total bill – taking into account the multiple pairs of shorts, shirts and jumpers that they will no doubt want to stock up on – comes in at £581.50.

Naturally the uniform is available from ‘Sloaney’ department store, Peter Jones, in Chelsea – a favourite of Kate’s.

In attending Thomas’s, George will, notably, become the first direct heir to the throne to attend a coeducational pre-prep school.

The family-run school has 540 pupils and is one of a group of six schools across London.

Society magazine Tatler says it is populated by ‘pushy professional parents’.

But while the Good School Guide admits that it is competitive, it says parents simply want ‘the best education money can buy’.

Headmaster Ben Thomas has insisted that Thomas’s Battersea, is ‘about so much more than getting children into their next school’ and a huge emphasis is placed on kindness and humility as well.

‘Best education money can buy’