Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children are set to attend British schools in September following the shock announcement that they will be returning from California this month.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are understood to have already enrolled their children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, in school.
Education secretary Lucy Powell described it as a “great endorsement” of the UK’s education system, but said it was unlikely they would be attending a local state school.
King Charles was first made aware of their move on Sunday, just three days before the news became public. He is understood to welcome the opportunity to see more of the family, who have rarely visited since leaving the UK in 2020.
He was reunited with his grandchildren last month at his Highgrove country estate in their first in-person meeting since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.
The Sussexes have not revealed what school they have chosen, but are not expected to send them to a boarding school.
Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William, are among the generations of British royalty that have been schooled at Eton, one of the country’s oldest and most exclusive public schools.
The Duke described entering the college in 1998 as a “profound shock” and admitted he was “completely overwhelmed” by the pressure.
In September, Prince George will start at the prestigious boarding school, which educates boys aged 13 to 18 and costs more than £63,000 a year.
It is not known if Prince George will board, as Eton is close to his Windsor Great Park home; however, the school does not currently have any day pupils.
A Sussex spokesperson previously told MailOnline that “Prince Harry has not put his son’s name down for Eton, nor does he have any plans to do so.”
Harry and his brother also attended Ludgrove School, an English independent boys’ preparatory boarding school in Wokingham.
However, the children are expected to attend a co-educational day school, rather than a boarding school, so Archie is unlikely to go there.
Archie and Lilibet’s cousins, George, Charlotte, and Louis, have all been educated at Lambrook School in Berkshire.
George and Charlotte previously attended Thomas’s School in Battersea, but Harry and Meghan aren’t planning to move to London, so will not send their children there either.
The Duke and Duchess are rumoured to be relocating to the Cotswolds and Northampton area, close to the Spencer family estate in Althorp, where the couple visited this summer, BBC reported.
Archie and Lilibet could be enrolled in a school close to this area.
Princess Diana attended Silfield Private School in Norfolk, Riddlesworth Hall School in Norfolk, and West Heath Girls’ School in Kent, which are all now closed.
They are also unlikely to follow King Charles and Prince Philip, who attended Gordonstoun School, a co-educational private school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland.
The King broke palace tradition by attending Hill House school in West London when he was eight, shifting the royal family’s education from private home-schooling to mainstream elite independent public schools.
Until now, Prince Archie has attended a private school near the family’s home in Montecito, California, where the family moved to in 2020.
