Royals’ new school ..at £53,000 a year
Complete with 52 acres, golf course, pool and orchard
WILLIAM and Kate are moving to Windsor to be closer to the Queen, meaning their three children will attend a new school.
Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and four-year-old Prince Louis are to join Lambrook, which will set the royal couple back £53,508 a year in private fees.
It is the first time the three siblings will attend the same school together.
Private Lambrook boasts its own nine-hole golf course set in 52 acres of idyllic Berkshire countryside. It also has an orchard, swimming pool, Astroturf, hard courts, a squash court, cricket and other sports pitches.
The Good Schools Guide describes it as a “classic prep school” with a “heart of gold” and tells of how youngsters get to “run and run” in the vast grounds with “total freedom to explore, provided you’ve got your wellies on”.
Lambrook is on the outskirts of Bracknell, a 20-minute drive from the Queen’s Windsor Castle home.
It offers weekly and flexi-boarding for boys and girls aged seven onwards.
George and Charlotte will be day pupils for now while Louis will be in reception.
William, Kate and the children are leaving behind their Kensington
Palace home in London for the more “modest” four bedroom Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor estate.
One palace insider said the couple’s “overriding focus is to provide as ‘normal’ a life as possible for their children before beginning their own royal lives”.
William and Kate will retain their Kensington Palace apartment, which was refurbished with £4.5million of taxpayers’ money in 2013, as their official residence and working base. It will continue to house their office staff.
But as millions of ordinary people struggle with the cost of living crisis, they will also keep their 10-bedroom Anmer Hall home. The Norfolk residence, a gift from the Queen, has a swimming pool and tennis court. It has had large-scale building work paid for by the couple. A Palace source insisted the Duke and Duchess were conscious of how their move stands in contrast to the cost of living crisis which is affecting the nation. The source said: “They absolutely are.
“It’s something they have thought long and hard about and this is a decision they have not taken lightly. It would have been extremely difficult for them to continue on as senior working royals if they were based in Norfolk. What they have basically done allows them to put the kids first, but also to continue on doing what they do all day, every day.” George and Charlotte have been attending Thomas’s school in Battersea, South West London.
Kensington Palace said: “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have today announced that Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis will attend Lambrook School in Berkshire from September 2022.
“Their Royal Highnesses are hugely grateful to Thomas’s Battersea and are pleased to have found a school for all three of their children which shares a similar ethos and values to Thomas’s.”
Lambrook head Jonathan Perry added: “We are delighted Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis will be joining us this September and very much look forward to welcoming the family, as well as all of our new pupils, to our school community.”
Palace sources confirmed William and Kate will pay market value on the property from their own private funds, not from taxpayers’ money via the Sovereign Grant, and will foot their own moving costs.
They have thought long and hard about this, it is a decision not taken lightly
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