A royal arrival decades in the making
Eton College is bracing itself. With Prince George due to begin his first term this September, the prestigious school has wasted no time making its position clear — erecting fresh "No Photography" signs along the fences outside its grounds, warning both press and public that students are not to be photographed on site.
The signs may be blunt, but the message behind them carries the full weight of royal history. George, 13, is widely regarded as the most closely watched new pupil the school has welcomed in decades, and Eton knows better than most how to handle that kind of attention. When his father, the Prince of Wales, arrived at the school back in September 1995, a formal agreement was brokered with the British press through the Press Complaints Commission to limit coverage of the young prince throughout his school years.
"Prince William is not an institution; nor a soap star; nor a football hero. He is a boy: in the next few years, perhaps the most important and sometimes painful part of his life, he will grow up and become a man."
Those words, spoken by Press Complaints Commission chairman John Wakeham at the time, largely held firm. Photographs from William's five years at Eton are scarce outside of a handful of arranged shoots and annual events — a testament to how effectively the agreement protected him.
A similar arrangement is now expected to be negotiated ahead of George's arrival, with Kensington Palace understood to be working with the press on guidelines for the new term.
Following in royal footsteps — but forging his own path
George's arrival at Eton places him firmly in the footsteps of both his father and his uncle, Prince Harry, who also attended the school as a teenager. He joins a distinguished alumni list that includes former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and David Cameron, authors George Orwell and Ian Fleming, and actors Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston — all products of a school that costs upwards of £60,000 per year to attend.
The Prince of Wales has spoken warmly of his own time there, previously saying that he "really enjoyed being able to go about Eton as just another student" — a sentiment that will no doubt be front of mind for the Wales family as they prepare George for this next chapter. The Prince and Princess of Wales have been consistent and deliberate in their efforts to shield their three children from public scrutiny, allowing them to appear on royal occasions while fiercely guarding their day-to-day lives.
A new kind of independence
This will not be George's first taste of life away from home. During his time at Lambrook School in Berkshire — where his younger siblings, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, remain enrolled — he has previously tried flexible boarding, as Prince William has revealed. Eton, however, represents a more permanent shift. George will now return home only at weekends and during school holidays, though the school sits just a 16-minute drive from the family's home, Forest Lodge.
Before Lambrook, George attended Westacre Montessori School in Norfolk, then Thomas's Battersea in London, before the family relocated to Berkshire in 2022. Eton marks his fourth school — and by far his highest-profile one yet.
One element of Eton life that may ease the transition: every boy is given his own private study-bedroom from day one. There are no shared dormitories. The school's official website states that pupils "have their own private space and are required to organise themselves and to develop self-discipline in meeting tasks and deadlines" — a policy that applies equally to the son of the future King as it does to every other new boy walking through the gates this autumn.
As September draws closer, all eyes — officially forbidden from photographing the premises — will be watching regardless. That much is inevitable. But if the precedent set for his father is anything to go by, Eton has every intention of giving George the space to simply be a boy.
