Royal kids going to Lambrook

[Hettythechicken]

I wonder how things will change (if anything) for existing parents/staff. I don’t envy the teachers or Head - there must be so much more pressure with security and press intrusion. I don’t know Lambrook particularly well but I’m not surprised they’ve chosen it!
Would you be happy if royal children started at your children’s school?

@hockeygrass it isn’t ‘posher’, it’s just more country than urban, so will be more traditional, but less cosmopolitan.

@Cruella78 , the smart Berkshire prep schools are niche but I believe Lambrook has been full for the last year or so and parents have been aware that George was joining for quite some time. Lambrook is close enough to London for George to have travelled from Kensington if necessary, ie if the house move had been delayed.

Thomas isn't particularly posh. It was quite a surprise choice at the time

I love this 😂 Her ex husband sounds truly frightening, glad she got away.

We left the area so it didn't happen, but we had a place at Lambrook for DS to start in Reception in 2014. It was the case even then that you needed to apply in reasonable time to get into YR. At that time, it was a standard, slightly shabby, country prep, but was just starting to attract a different set of parents and fancy new facilities (pool, theatre) were just going in.

DS is going into Y8 now, so he would still be there and I am more than glad to have dodged that bullet- and that the school he goes to remains an obscure, shabby country prep.

@2reefsin30knots i think you're definitely blessed... Wouldn't fancy it for my dc either. I imagine alot of amendments will need to be made to facilitate security for 3 of them... Lambrook does look & sound idyllic, would love something similar for my dc but we're stuck with the local primary 😂

Blimey, that couldn’t sound more pretentious!

Re Kate and St Andrew’s. Didn’t she swap at the last minute from art history at Edinburgh (v sought after) when it became known (in posh circles) that Wills was off to St As after his gap yah? Think I read something along those lines in Tina Brown’s recent book.

Yes I think that's correct. I think she also tried to get on the same gap year experience that he did but couldn't?

Is this true?? Is this not known as "stalking" lmao

Are they playacting at being normal with this school? It's hardly the local comprehensive.

@HaggisBurger @IHeartPepsi Sounds like she has got what she deserves then if the rumours of his affairs are true. We live very near Highgrove and so we used to see him in action in the local pubs and hunt balls when he was dating her, and he behaved as if he didn't have a girlfriend I can tell you. He and Harry had a special room at one of the very rural pubs, it was upstairs where they could take friends to get away from the attention and play cards 'etc'. All my girlfriends have a Prince William 'story' to tell. I hope he cleaned up his act once he was married but I suspect not.

The pegging story is hilarious. I thought he seemed so uptight & formal😂

I worked at MC when KM was there. It was VERY well known that it was all about improving the Middleton’s social standing and giving her the best chance of getting to a university where she would “mix with royalty and billionaires”. The William plan was properly formulated when she was 14/15. It was absolutely no secret.

@Superspender Around here it is definitely known that he is anything but uptight and formal. He comes across very differently in public life - but they are just actors aren't they, no different from acting in a Hollywood film really.

This is such a weird lie. Why would you even have noticed KM? Why would her going to MC be anything to do with the Middletons’ social standing (given that MM went to public school himself) and why would school staff be opining on it?

If it was really 'no secret' then it couldn't possibly have worked.

First rule of the gold-digger - never give out the slightest hint

@TizerorFizz
But his university place was announced in the media the year before he took it up as he then had a gap year. So actually everyone knew where he going to go.
The reports at the time were that Kate rejected a place at Edinburgh then took a gap year herself and reapplied for St Andrew’s.

Who started the rumour and what did they stand to gain from it?

Let’s say it was true for a second. Why on earth would the family publicise it?

And if they didn’t… it’s all just hearsay, surely?

Were there really reports at the time?

The general public didn't know she existed until the first time she went skiing with him in 2004, but he started university in 2001. And I'd be surprised if the press started digging before that either

Can you remember/find the early reports? I'd be (genuinely) quite interested in having a read. (I thought it was all later invention, but happy to learn differently)

Whether she knew or not KM & Pippa were prepared perfectly to marry into aristocracy... They could ski to a high level (black slopes) play tennis, horse ride, row, very strong swimmers, play hockey, athletics.. Their future was planned meticulously!

Yes there were reports the year before (not about KM, about his university place). I am the same school year as Prince William and I was most put out that on the day A level results were released that it was announced that Prince William would be taking a gap year and then would be going to St Andrews. It was quite an unusual choice at the time as the previous heirs to the throne had gone to Oxbridge (if they had gone at all)
I was put out because my results meant that I'd also been accepted at St Andrews (without a gap year) and there were various comments made by people (although obviously I couldn't have known beforehand!)

It did massively raise the university's profile and indeed the year after I started (Prince William's first year) they ended up massively over-recruiting and had to turn games rooms in halls of residences into bedrooms to accommodate all the new first years!

@EdithWeston
i was at university at the same time and definitely remember when William’s place in St Andrew’s was announced as a couple of people I know joked (at least I think they were joking!) about rejecting their uni offer and reapplying to St Andrew’s.
But yes I guess the reports about Kate Middleton didn’t come out until later - I can’t remember how much later though but I think not long after they finished university.

Marlborough and St Andrews had no royal connections whatever before Kate enrolled at both. So it would be more accurate to suppose her parents purposely sent her to places where she was least likely to encounter the royal circle.

Yes, because you can't become Queen if you don't play hockey