William and Kate will send their children to Lambrook School: Inside the £25k-a-year private prep

William and Kate will send their children to Lambrook School: Inside the £25k-a-year private prep 

The co-educational independent school boasts a full-size cricket pitch,

an on-site orchard and farm animals including rabbits and peacocks.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have announced they will send their children to an “outdoorsy”

Private prep school in Berkshire whose 52-acre grounds boast a nine-hole golf course and several pet peacocks.

Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven and Prince Louis, four, will follow in the footsteps of Queen Victoria’s grandchildren as they start classes at the co-educational Lambrook School near Windsor Castle next month.

The move will set the Cambridges back more than £50,000 a year, with school fees of £20,997 for children of George’s age,

£19,344 for Charlotte’s and £13,167 for Louis’.

The children’s arrival and accompanying security personnel will likely come as a shock to the 615-pupil school,

which remains relatively low-profile despite its high fees.

Founded in 1860 and housed in a white stucco building from 1853,

Lambrook educates children mostly from families with “professional and business backgrounds”

who live within 15 minutes of the site, according to its latest inspection report.

Its proximity to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Great Park,

Where the Cambridges moved over the summer, likely proved a major draw for the Duke and Duchess over other,

higher-profile prep schools a little further afield.

Lambrook’s list of notable alumni is markedly shorter than those of nearby Cheam and Ludgrove,

counting obscure royals, Stormbreaker actor Alex Pettyfer and Giles Clarke, the founder of Majestic Wine, among its former pupils.

However, the Royals are understood to have selected the school to give their children a more low-key, rural lifestyle away from London.

Describing itself as an “outdoorsy” school that gives its pupils the “feathers to fly”,

Lambrook’s on-site orchard is home to several peacocks, chickens, lambs and rabbits.

Students are offered beekeeping lessons and taught how to feed the animals,

while scholars breakfast on honey sandwiches made from the school’s own hives.

Lambrook’s 52-acre private grounds also include a nine-hole golf course,

25m swimming pool and full-sized cricket pitch and pavilion.

Queen Victoria used to travel from Windsor Castle to the school to watch her grandchildren in cricket matches, parking her carriage where Lambrook’s Queen’s building now stands.

For Prince George and Princess Charlotte,

Who have spent several years at St Thomas’s in London’s busy Battersea, the switch to a more pastoral lifestyle will likely prove a breath of fresh air.

School guide Talk Education has previously described it as a “pretty bucolic”

School that boasts “a sense of delicious freedom”.

“We spotted children cartwheeling on the croquet lawn,

racking around with cricket bats and swinging from old tyres hanging from the trees, sporting proper rosy cheeks and a healthy outdoorsy glow,” it added.

File photo dated 05/09/19 of Princess Charlotte, waving as she arrives for her first day at school, 

with her brother Prince George and her parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge,

At Thomas's Battersea in London, as The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will have drawn on their own experiences of education when choosing Lambrook as the next school for their three children.

PA Photo. Issue date: Monday August 22, 2022. 

It is the first time a future king and spares to the heir have been signed up for the private day and weekly boarding school near Ascot in Berkshire,

which prides itself on its academic success teamed with an outdoor lifestyle. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge.

Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

Princess Charlotte and Prince George have attended Thomas’s School in Battersea for several years,

while Prince George will be starting education for the first time next month (Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire)

And while the Cambridges are understood to have ditched their full-time nanny in the move to the countryside,

the Royals need not worry that more time rolling in the mud might cause extra housework.

Lambrook’s prospectus mentions the fact that the school launders children’s muddy clothes to be sent back home at the end of term,

While parents also have the option of a night off once or twice a week through “flexi-boarding”.

A wide range of extracurricular activities could also see the princes and princess try their hands at scuba diving, polo,

podcast-making and Mini-Masterchef,

while overseas school trips include jaunts to France, Italy, Iceland and South Africa.

The school’s eco credentials are likely to have appealed to Prince William,

Who launched the environmental Earthshot Prize last year.

Lambrook recently came second place in the Winton Cup Humanities Competition,

which saw Year 6 pupils explore the theme of climate ambition.

Meanwhile, Year 7 students who went on a recent trip to Sweden were tasked with fundraising £500 each to help an underprivileged child do the same through the Teenage Wilderness Trust.

The school has garnered high praise from inspecting bodies,

with the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) noting in 2018 that Lambrook’s pupils

 “develop into thoughtful, well-informed,

courteous and extremely well-behaved individuals” with “high self-esteem”.

The Christian institution emphasises its faith lens and chapel services,

according to the ISI. But is a far cry from a traditionally conservative school,

teaching children “issues surrounding gender identity” and LGBT.

And in a sigh of relief for the Royals, the ISI report also highlighted the school’s devotion to “British values”

meaning any questions over the monarchy will likely be limited to debating society.

It also boasts a 100 per cent success rate in passing common entrance,

with leavers heading to schools including Eton College, Prince William’s old school,

and Marlborough College, where the Duchess of Cambridge spent her teenage years.

Perhaps the only drawback for Prince William and Kate will be finding a spot in the school’s car park, 

where Lamborghinis, Teslas and 4x4s are reported to be “prerequisites” for parents.

The Cambridges, who treated themselves to a £94,000 Range Rover earlier this year, should fit right in.