BREAKING: Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis Start Their New School Year at Lambrook After Prince George Begins at Eton — But One Small Detail About Charlotte’s Latest Move Has Everyone Asking Questions. 👑

Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis Start New School Year at Lambrook After Prince George Begins at Eton

Prince William and Princess Kate don’t always share back-to-school photos of their three children

By
Stephanie Petit

Published on September 9, 2026 12:30PM EDT

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Prince George; Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.Credit : Adrian DENNIS / POOL / AFP via Getty; Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

NEED TO KNOW

Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are back in the classroom at Lambrook School
The day prior, Prince George started at Eton College
It’s unclear where Charlotte will attend school next when she turns 13, as Eton is all-boys

Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are back to school!

As Prince George starts at Eton College this year after aging out of Lambrook School, his two younger siblings — 11-year-old Charlotte and 8-year-old Louis — are continuing to attend the school where they enrolled in 2022. Lambrook’s fall term started on Wednesday, Sept. 9, meaning Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis were back in the classroom.

Although Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis didn’t accompany their big brother on his first day at Eton the day prior, Prince William and Kate Middleton were photographed with their eldest son on his big day. The trio shared a laugh over an umbrella mishap before cameras caught them making their way across the quad to greet Simon Henderson, the headmaster of the school, and Sir Nicholas Coleridge, the provost of Eton.

“Welcome,” Henderson told Prince George as they shook hands. “Good luck. Enjoy it.”

Kate Middleton, Prince George and Prince William on George’s first day at Eton College on Sept. 8, 2026.Adrian DENNIS / POOL / AFP via Getty

While photos were released to mark Prince George’s first day at Eton, including official snaps of George in his school uniform, the Prince and Princess of Wales, both 44, don’t always mark the new school year publicly. Instead, they have traditionally celebrated their children’s major milestones — like first days of nursery school or starts at new institutions — by releasing portraits or having a photo call.

George starred in photos released when he started nursery school, the U.K.’s equivalent of preschool, in 2016, and Prince William held his son’s hand on his first day at Thomas’s Battersea in London the following year.

Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis on Aug. 1, 2026.Karwai Tang/WireImage

Prince William and Princess Kate also had a first day of school photo call when Princess Charlotte started at Thomas’s in 2019, and a special photo was released of Prince Louis in 2021 that marked both his first day of preschool and his third birthday.

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis starred in their only back-to-school photos all together in September 2022 when they began at Lambrook School after the family relocated from London to Windsor. Princess Kate and Prince William held hands with their children, wearing matching uniforms, as they attended a preview day for new students.

Prince George, Kate Middleton, Prince Louis, Prince William and Princess Charlotte at Lambrook in September 2022.Jonathan Brady – Pool/Getty Images

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According to the school’s website, “The Lambrook experience combines first-class teaching and superb facilities with traditional values, set in the idyllic surroundings of 52 acres of beautiful Berkshire countryside.”

The school’s facilities include a “25-meter swimming pool, Astroturf, Hard Courts, a Diamond Jubilee Performing Arts Studio, Dance Studio and Sports Hall,” ideal offerings for the Prince and Princess of Wales’ sporty children.

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Inside the classroom, lessons are 35 minutes long, and students are mixed in grades of ability rather than age. The curriculum includes English, math, French, science, Latin, Greek, history, geography, art, drama, music and physical education.

Beyond core subjects, there are classes available in filmmaking, animation, cookery and a $7 million design and technology building that houses an art studio, science labs and computer suites.

And learning goes outside the classroom at Lambrook — literally. With a strong focus on outdoor learning, Prince Louis might be den building and splashing in muddy puddles one day and collecting chicken eggs on another. The school also has beehives — something Kate, who practices beekeeping at the family’s Anmer Hall home on the Sandringham estate and makes her own honey, may be particularly interested in asking her children when they get home from a school day.

When Princess Charlotte turns 13, she’ll also move to a new school — but she won’t be joining her elder brother, as Eton College is strictly all-boys. She may follow in her mother’s footsteps at Marlborough College, a co-ed school that William’s cousin Princess Eugenie also attended.

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While Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis were back in the classroom for their first day of the school year, their dad was in Norway. On Sept. 9, Prince William represented his father, King Charles, at the funeral of King Harald of Norway, who died in August at age 89 after 35 years on the throne.

Royals from around the world processed behind King Harald’s coffin, including another member of the British royal family: Princess Anne, who is a godmother to Norway’s new monarch, King Haakon.