Prince George will attend Eton College from this September, beginning a school life that is expected to look different from the one Prince William had there. The move puts him on the same path as his father, but not under the same family circumstances.
The confirmation from Kensington Palace has turned a long-rumoured school choice into a date on the calendar. George, who is interested in history, football and hockey, will start at the school in September, and the question now is not where he is going but how his experience will unfold once he gets there.
Robert Jobson said the difference matters because William arrived at Eton carrying the strain of his parents' separation, while George is expected to arrive from a settled home with two parents together. Jobson said William signed the Entrance Book as a boy of thirteen, and recalled that Charles and Diana stood either side of him for the Eton photocall even though they were separated by then. The divorce was a year away, and two years after that photocall, Diana was dead.
That contrast is central to why this move is being watched so closely. Prince William had support at the school, including Dr Andrew Gailey, who took him under his wing educationally and emotionally, but Jobson said George begins from a different place altogether. In his view, George is walking into Eton with a base already in place, and that changes the tone before the first lesson even starts.
Eton’s location also shapes the story. Jobson said the school will be a challenge for George, but being close to home, in the shadow of Windsor Castle, should help. Melanie Sanderson, the managing editor of The Good Schools' Guide, said boys are allowed a little more freedom to pop in and out of school at weekends, coming home for Sunday lunch or for tea on a Saturday evening after sports fixtures. That flexibility did not define Prince William’s school years in the same way, and it gives George a routine that may feel less closed off.
The school itself offers 28 subjects, including nine Modern and Classical Languages. Its curriculum also includes English literature, mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics, along with Ancient History, History of Art, Theatre Studies, Government and Politics, Music Technology and Computer Science. For a boy with an interest in history, that range leaves room for a choice that could fit him well, but the exact subjects he will take have not been set out.
That open question is the last piece still missing. George is expected to join Eton with more stability around him than William had, and with Windsor Castle close enough to make home feel near, but his day-to-day life there remains unwritten. The school move is now fixed; the shape of the boy’s first term is not.
