The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge‘s eldest children Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte, six, returned to their classrooms this week, after months of homeschooling during the lockdown.
The young royals are now in Year 4 and Year 2 respectively at Thomas’s Battersea school in southwest London.
While Prince George and Princess Charlotte are two of the most famous children around the world, they’re not referred to by their royal titles at school.
The siblings are known simply as George Cambridge and Charlotte Cambridge to their school friends, in a nod to their parents’ titles. This was also the case for Prince William and Prince Harry, who took on Prince Charles’ title Wales as their surname at school.
Members of the royal family traditionally don’t use a surname; they are simply known by their first name in the public eye and His or Her Royal Highness.
A declaration made by the Queen in Privy Council in 1960, said that male-line descendants of the monarch, without royal styles and titles, shall bear the name Mountbatten-Windsor.
When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex‘s first child Archie were born in May 2019, Harry and Meghan opted to not give their son a title and he, therefore, has the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. The same can be said for their daughter Lilibet Diana, who was born in June 2021.
Last year while meeting emergency responders in Northern Ireland, Prince William opened up about how he felt about his children returning to school after lockdown.
Speaking to a police officer, William told her that he suspected other mums and dads were having the same experience as himself.
The father-of-three said: “I think every parent is breathing a sigh of relief that school has started again.” He went on: “Five months – it’s been wonderful, but it’s been a long five months.”
William and Kate’s youngest child Prince Louis, who turned three in April, started nursery in April 2021. The tot followed in his big sister Charlotte’s footsteps and attends Willcocks Nursery School in Kensington, close to Kensington Palace.
