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After months of homeschooling, Prince George and Princess Charlotte were expected to return to school at Thomas’s Battersea on Monday. The future King, seven, is beginning Year 3 this term and Charlotte, five, is starting Year 1. While their oldest children are back to hitting the books, Kate Middleton and Prince William ’s youngest child Prince Louis likely won’t begin his education until next year. If Louis is following in his older siblings’ footsteps, then the two-year-old Prince will likely start nursery school in January of 2021, according to HOLA! USA’s sister brand HELLO!.
Prince George was two and a half when he started attending Westacre Montessori School in 2016. Similarly, Charlotte was around the same age when she began nursery school at Willcocks Nursery School in 2018. Explaining the Duke and Duchess’ school choice, a Kensington Palace spokesperson said, “They felt it was ideal as a first step for Princess Charlotte’s early education and they were impressed by the team that work there.” HELLO! noted that it’s possible Louis will attend the same preschool as his big sister, which is near their London home, Kensington Palace.
Charlotte began her studies at Thomas’s Battersea last September, joining Prince George at the school. The young Princess was accompanied by her parents and big brother for her first day. However, because of the COVID-19 outbreak George and Charlotte began homeschooling in March. “Due to the increasing number of children and staff absent from school because of the coronavirus pandemic, Thomas’s London Day Schools have decided to move to remote learning from Friday 20 March,” a spokesperson for Thomas’s London Day Schools said at the time. “From this date the curriculum will be taught through online learning platforms and we have asked parents to keep their children at home and to access their lessons through this system. This will ensure that children have continuity of learning when they are unable to attend school.”
The Duchess of Cambridge previously revealed that George was jealous of his little sister’s homeschool work. “George gets very upset because he wants to do all of Charlotte’s projects, like making sort of spider sandwiches is far cooler than literacy work,” she shared during an appearance on ITV’s This Morning in May.
Homeschooling amid the pandemic was an eye-opening experience for the Duke. When asked on BBC Radio 5 Live’s That Peter Crouch Podcast what he learned, William answered, “Probably that my patience is a lot shorter than I thought it was. That’s probably been the biggest eye-opener for me, and that my wife has super patience.” William and Kate proved to be a great tag team. He said, “Basically we’re a good sort of team tag session where I come in and have a chat with the children and try to get them to do stuff, and then hand over to Catherine when frankly everything has gone wrong.”