Prince George at Eton

[squashyhat]

Can anyone explain why Prince George is boarding at Eton when the family home is just minutes away across the river?

Mostly very wealthy ones I’m guessing.

Intelligence tends to follow the mother.

There are lots of Mumsnetters who openly think that is ridiculously out of reach of a state school
pupil!

Probably don’t know any then!

I’m not saying he didn’t, I specifically posed it as a question. I’m not sure why you feel so certain he did.

The use of a different name is neither here nor there. At school he went by George Cambridge (because his parents were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) and so he may have done these exams as George Wales. It’s hardly the enigma code to work out who he is.

And you are right, Eton can afford to be choosy. The applicants will largely be very clever and academically able children who have been tutored within an inch of their lives to get past those exams, so the competition is stiff. But do you really think that Eton might not be willing to waive George through if he didn’t do quite as well, despite the prestige and influence arising from educating a future King?

It's very obvious why an exception to usual academic standards was made for a child who'd just lost his mother in terrible, highly-publicised circumstances and who had his older brother at the school. And it was done with good intentions - only with hindsight can we see how disastrously it turned out.

I actually think it's an ideal situation. He'll get to live, work, sleep, eat, play sports, etc. etc. along side his peers. No palaces, no servants, and no press for most of the year. He'll live in exactly the same way, in the same dorm rooms, same rules, same restrictions, as everyone else.

A regular routine, plus total privacy and security, which means a chance to feel just like everyone else for a change, which will give him real stability throughout his adolescence. And he's close enough to his parents that he can pop home for an occasional Sunday lunch if he wants to.

He gets independence without being too far away, and from now until he finishes university is a golden decade of his life where he has a chance to just be himself, make friends, and have the closest thing there is to a normal life and routine that he will ever have.

For many children, boarding school takes them away from normal life. For Prince George, it is a chance to be part of it. Makes total sense to me. I hope he's really happy there.

Do you think he would’ve been rejected had his mother not died?

All that money to get worse grades than I did at the second lowest school in the national league tables and having left home to live alone in YR11.

I work with many people who went to such schools and it is funny hearing how some of them manage to fail certain A levels even in classes of 2-3 students.

I’m sure these schools do manage to drag up the grades of very unremarkable children one to three grades, with this intense focus and hothousing and their 12 hour days etc. It’s not something I’d choose for genuinely bright, intellectually curious and imaginative children, however.

An independent day school with smaller classes, rigorous academic teaching, high quality extra curricular activities available, properly enforced behaviour policies so far less disruption and violence than an average state school, and a more nurturing environment, yes. I.e. what decent state schools would be with a functioning education system. Boarding and institutionalisation with at least 50% of the intake not being particularly bright anyway, rather there through nepotism or financial means, no.

Can you imagine having to go to school with a spoiled brat like this? I feel sorry for those of his peers who haven’t been raised in such a dsyfunctional manner and removed from any prospect of becoming a self-sufficient adult, and whose parents think this bit of “independence cosplay” will resolve a childhood of entitlement rather than compound it by also stunting their emotional development due to not experiencing normal family life through the latter part of their childhood.

Possibly your parents didn’t know about bursaries, @MiceSpiders? Or have sufficient information on which schools were the must generous and how and when to apply?

People very close to me are chronically poor - but had that knowledge, and were organised and determined enough to use it. Info here:

https://www.etoncollege.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bursaries-Guidance.pdf

I don’t understand the ‘it’s not real life stuff’. It is real life - real life for a child of wealthy parents who want him to have the best academic education available in the UK. Just because it’s different from attending state school at end of road and returning home each evening doesn’t mean it’s not ‘real life’.

He’s lucky - he will have the resources available to maximise his intellectual potential if he’s so inclined. He will be able to access tuition from the most brilliant minds available both from incumbent and visiting lecturers, which will set him up both for university and for his future life. He’ll have to work hard to succeed which will give him self esteem separate from his constitutional role and title.

He will likely have a more down to earth time that he might otherwise by bunking in with other boys his age when he will be just one of a number. Hopefully he’ll make lots of loyal decent friends who he will have for life.

Yes, partly that. Inbreeding tends to reduce average IQ in descendents by around 20%, sometimes more. Also the sense of entitlement. What’s their incentive to work hard when they’re being raised told they’ll always be rich and have no responsibility for their life outcome?

Im not a fan of boarding generally, but for him, I think it’s the best option.

The stats about inbreeding? Astonishing.

It must be far more prevalent than one would think going by some of the posts here.

I've read that another school, can't remember the same, was thought more suitable for Harry but after Diana's death it was felt to be more important to keep the boys together, and William was already at Eton. I can believe that.

Is it? Where are these documents? , I’d like to see them.

What inbreeding?

Both Willian and Catherine were awarded 2:1 at St Andrews University. No mean feat.

Funnily enough, when I saw the photos and video today I thought how genuinely happy and confident he looked - more so than both William and Harry on their first days! W&K have prepared him well and it will give him a chance to have as normal a life as possible, with friends, given his position.

Also just wanted to say that the mark of a good education is not measured solely by your A level results. Some people seem genuinely unable to comprehend this.

I've always thought he looks shy, never unhappy.

True, but the state education system does not offer that, or even attempt to or even care to.

Also, not everyone wants or needs the best academic education possible. For many, a more vocational-oriented path is preferable.

Aaah - I didn't know that. As you were...

I think William and Catherine have ripped up the royal rule book where raising children is concerned and are making their own paths for their family. George looked very at ease this morning and quietly confident. Given William went there, he knows better than anyone if George will cope with it - and I'd imagine they've had a lot of doors open to them apart from Eton.

I hope he has a great time there being treated like everyone else - it's the only time in his life he'll get that.

Just saw a clip, made me feel funny as went to boarding school (a country one not famous). Just that feeling of being dropped off.

It is royal privilege in a clip. Hopefully he’ll enjoy it.