With help at hand, Prince takes school debut in his stride
SPORTING brand new shoes and a jumper big enough to grow into, a shy Prince George embarked on his first day of school yesterday, clutching his father’s hand while his mother was laid up with illness.
The Duchess of Cambridge missed the milestone moment due to severe morning sickness in the early stages of her third pregnancy.
Instead, the Duke did the honours, encouraging his apprehensive son and carrying a school bag labelled “George Cambridge” across the playground.
When asked about the young Prince’s anxious looks at the school gate, his grandfather, the Prince of Wales, described the experience of starting school as “character building” and jokingly said he hadn’t given him any advice because “he wouldn’t take it from me”.
Prince George, who turned four in July and will be one of the youngest in his year, spent the morning settling in with new friends before returning to Kensington Palace to report back to his mother and two-year-old sister. He had arrived at Thomas’s Battersea shortly before 8.50am, travelling in a child seat in the back of the family Range Rover in his blue shirt, red and navy jumper and smart shorts.
Holding his father’s hand for reassurance, he glanced up only once as he walked across the car park, with the
Duke appearing to give him a cheery pep talk along the way.
Showing diplomatic skills already practised in his overseas royal tours, the Prince took the outstretched hand of Helen Haslem, head of Thomas’s lower school, and shook it politely.
With the help of his new teacher, the Prince then made his way into school to find his coat peg and seat with his four-year-old classmates. The Duke stayed with his son for around 40 minutes before leaving him in the care of his new teacher.
A royal source said of the Duchess, who is suffering hyperemesis gravidarum: “She would have done anything to be here. It’s a big day in her son’s life but she really has been very sick.”
The Duke later said Prince George had a “good day”, adding: “It was really nice actually. It’s a nice school.”
Speaking at an afternoon event for the England Under 20 football team, he told head coach Paul Simpson: “It went well. There was one other parent who had more of an issue with their children – so I was quite pleased I wasn’t the one.”
The Prince of Wales, meanwhile, said he would be “interested to hear how he got on”.
He told ITV News: “Poor old thing. He’s been left there to have to get on with it when the parents go away. That’s the problem. It’s good for you in the end, I suppose. It’s character building, I suppose.”
Asked if he had given his grandson any advice, he said: “Of course not, he wouldn’t take it from me, I don’t think, at that age. No, but I shall be interested to hear how he got on. At that age you don’t worry quite so much about going to school as you do when you get a bit older. It’s that business of meeting new people and wondering, you know.”
Ben Thomas, principal of Thomas’s London Day Schools, insisted that Prince George would be treated like any other pupil.
The school’s reception year, said Mr Thomas, would be “incredibly exciting” for the Prince but focused on him feeling safe, secure, and mastering the basics such as carrying his school lunch on a tray independently.
The school, where fees start from £17,604 a year, has been described by The Good Schools Guide as: “A big, busy, slightly chaotic school for cosmopolitan parents who want their children to have the best English education money can buy.”