Cambridge children start new school together after move from Kensington Palace

William and Kate’s three children have started at their new school for the first time after the family’s move to Windsor from Kensington Palace.

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are all now pupils at Lambrook School near Ascot and have been filmed there at the start of the new term.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge relocated during the summer, in a move which was motivated, according to palace aides, by the needs of their children.

Prince William and Kate wanted George, who is a future King, and his siblings to have as much privacy as possible and live as near to a normal childhood as can be created for them. They decided to move the family home from Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace to Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor Estate.

That meant changing George and Charlotte’s school from the London one they had been attending, Thomas’s Battersea.

The two older children, who are aged 9 and 7, will be pupils in the prep school at Lambrook whilst Louis, who is 4, will start at the pre-prep school.

Lambrook is set in 50 acres of grounds - vastly different to the Battersea school in a built-up suburb of the capital. 

The new school has chickens, bee hives, and even some pigs to encourage pupils to do at least some of their lessons outside.

Learning and playing outdoors is something Kate has championed as part of her work in the early years sector and she has spoken about the physical and mental benefits of children spending as much time as possible outside. 

It’s a passion that also runs in Prince William’s family and something he inherited from his grandfather, Prince Philip, who set up the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme after attending Gordonstoun school in the north of Scotland.

The filming and photographing of the Cambridge children at school on their taster day on Wednesday, before lessons officially begin, was permitted by the Duke and Duchess and facilitated by Kensington Palace and Headteacher at Lambrook School.

Going forward, Williams and Kate’s aides have asked that no photographs are taken at the school, and the children are left to carry on with their studies in private.

Editors from media organisations have been asked that they do not buy or publish any images they are offered of the children without the permission of the Palace.

It’s an agreement which has, by and large, held since George started school in 2017.

It also contrasts with the recent claim by the Duchess of Sussex in her Spotify podcast that her son, Archie, would have had to endure 40 photographers in a pen at the school gate every day, had she and Harry stayed in the Royal Family.

For the Cambridge children, a single television camera on behalf of the broadcasters and a single stills camera on behalf of the newspapers and websites were permitted to enter the school grounds at Lambrook to take the images.