Prince George heads back to school soon, along with little sister Princess Charlotte
Like kids around the world, it's back to school time for British royals Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
And like moms around the world, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is likely celebrating because she will only have one school drop-off and pick-up this year. Both George and Charlotte will start next month at Thomas's Battersea School.
This school year will be the third at Thomas's Battersea for Prince George, 6, the oldest child of Prince William and Kate. Charlotte will start her first year at the private school, located just a few miles from the family's home at Kensington Palace.
The siblings are known to their classmates not by their royal titles but as George Cambridge and Charlotte Cambridge.
Thomas's Battersea's most important rule is "be kind," the school notes on its website.
In addition to normal school subjects like math, science and reading, George, 6, and Charlotte, 4, and their classmates also take on everything from computer programming and religious studies to French, poetry and ballet.
“We are proud of our creative curriculum and the children quickly become immersed in their topics and engage in all learning experiences presented to them,” the school’s lower school head, Helen Halsem, says in a letter shared online. “Progress is carefully monitored and supported by the form teacher, the teaching assistant and specialist teachers.”
Halsem was on hand when George attended his first day of school in 2017, holding his hand as he walked into the school alongside Prince William.
George is in now in Year 2 of the Lower School, when students are expected to become "leaders," according to Halsem.
"By Year 2, the children become the Leaders of the Lower School. This increasing independence and maturity helps them to prepare for a smooth transition to the Middle School," she explains on the school's website.
William and Kate, also the parents of 1-year-old Prince Louis, have chosen for their children a school that describes itself as prioritizing social responsibility as much as academic achievement.
"Whilst we are proud of our record of senior school entrance and scholarship successes, we place a greater emphasis on a set of core values, which include kindness, courtesy, confidence, humility and learning to be givers, not takers," the school's headmaster says in a welcome letter on the website. "We hope that our pupils will leave this school with a strong sense of social responsibility, set on a path to become net contributors to society and to flourish as conscientious and caring citizens of the world."
Thomas's Battersea requires its approximately 560 students to wear uniforms, including to ballet.
George and Charlotte can look forward to field trips in their futures, too.
Students "enjoy regular day trips to London’s art galleries, theaters, parks, museums and historic locations," according to the school's website.
