Step into Lambrook’s sweeping, 52-acre estate and you could be mistaken for thinking you’re at one of Berkshire’s finest country hotels.
Bee-keeping, wellbeing walks, polo, survival skills and even scuba diving are among the activities offered at the Cambridge children’s new £20,000-a-year prep school for three to 13-year-olds near Ascot, with on-site facilities including a 25-metre swimming pool, a squash court and “elegant” nine-hole golf course. Peacocks, lambs and chickens are among the farm animals wandering the orchard if any of the school’s 620 pupils need a cuddle between lessons.
No wonder Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, look so excited for the start of term. The Queen’s three great-grandchildren were pictured smiling as they walked up Lambrook’s driveway with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge first thing this morning, proudly shaking hands with their new headmaster Jonathan Perry, described by parents as a “tweed jacket and cords type” and a “very nice man” who is “particularly keen on getting kids into Eton” and “sees potential” in pupils — a nod to the school’s “nurtures potential” mantra. “It feels like they really know your child,” says leading fashion stylist Bay Garnett, who sent her son there and saw him “thrive”.
The day and flexi-boarding school is just a 10-minute drive from the Cambridge’s new home, Adelaide Cottage in Windsor, so they’ll be day pupils for now, though insiders say Perry encourages children to board at least one day a week as they get older. The school is also 10-minutes from Ascot, an educational hotspot home to some of the country’s leading prep schools, many of them feeders to public schools like Radley, Harrow and Eton, where the Duke and his brother were educated. Will George and Louis follow royal tradition and go there too?
Parents and prospective parents say there’s a “stampede away from London schools at the age of seven” because many of the wealthy Londoners looking to give their children a leafier upbringing outside the capital also want to avoid putting them through the challenging 11+ exams. A triumvirate of Berkshire schools - Lambrook, Papplewick and Caldicott - have long competed to fill that gap, taking kids through to 13 and the same time as being less than an hour’s bus ride from west London. So why did Kate and Wills choose Lambrook in particular?
Lambrook’s co-educational credentials may well have been a key reason, say insiders. Papplewick and Caldicott are both single sex boys schools so if The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wanted to send George and Louis to the same school as Charlotte, Lambrook was the obvious winner. Two of Queen Victoria’s grandsons, Prince Christian Victor and Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein, attended the school so it as a royal history, and the Duke and Duchess know the area well. Ludgrove, the boys boarding school where William and his younger brother Harry went to prep school, is just a 20-minute drive away in Wokingham, and while Kate’s old prep school St Andrew’s is also in Berkshire, 40-minutes from Lambroke in Pangbourne.
“Unstuffy” Lambrook also has a reputation for its outdoorsy lifestyle and encouraging of kids to spend time in nature. “There is a real outdoor culture: little ones have wellies and waterproof all-in-ones so they can romp freely through the 52 acres,” says Tatler, while idependent schools review Talk Education says its team “spotted children cartwheeling on the croquet lawn, racing around with cricket bats and swinging from old tyres hanging from the trees” when they visited.
Reception classes like Louis’ are reportedly treated to “Forest Fridays” playing in the woods, pupils recently planted 400 saplings to create a new woodland, and scholars breakfast on honey sandwiches made from the school’s own hives. Even the uniform speaks to this green feel, with girls in blue and green tartan kilts and boys in blue and green ties. Parents say their little ones regularly come home with rosy cheeks and a healthy outdoorsy glow - clearly a clincher for the Cambridges looking for a step-change from former inner-London school Thomas’s School in Battersea. A royal source recently commented that the couple “wanted to be able to give George, Charlotte and Louis a bit more freedom than they have living in central London” after the “fishbowl” of Kensington Palace.
Beekeeping lessons and woodland play might have impressed the green-fingered, eco-conscious Cambridges, but parents insist there’s far from a hippy vibe. “It’s just really nice and kid-focused. The children look really happy and lucky to be there,” says one prospective parent, nodding to the “ridiculous choice of clubs” and activities from archery and photography to mini-Masterchef competitions and podcast-making. There’s also an on-site croquet lawn, squash court and Diamond Jubilee performing arts studio. The Good Schools Guide describes speaks of Lambrook’s “heart of gold” and Talk Education speaks of its “sense of delicious freedom and fresh air”. “Weeknights sound like a hoot: think Harry Potter evenings and lashings of hot chocolate,” the site says in its review of the school.
Garnett says what impressed her most was the way staff see each child’s potential. Her son had already been moved up a class when teachers said they were going to move him up again into the scholarship class. Garnett objected, saying he was happy in his class and had lots of friends. But teachers said no, they were moving him up regardless. “It was a really interesting moment... and they were right. He actually really thrived,” says Garnett, looking back. She was “really taken aback” at the time but admires how the school stuck to its guns and ignored her request as a parent. “It feels like they know your child.”
The school itself is a white19th-century mansion from 1853 that is objectively grand but can divide opinion. Most parents agree with Garnett and think it’s “beautiful”, while others say the white stucco facade and Farrow and Ball interiors are “a bit flashy”. “Lots of white Range Rovers and worryingly white teeth,” is how one parent describes Lambrook, adding that some rival schools were offended by the Cambridges’ decision to send the kids to “new-gen” Lambrook instead of a “smarter” school. Annual fees start at Lambroke start at £13,167 for younger pupils like Prince Louis and range up to £20,997 for older pupils for Prince George. Papplewick and Caldicott are both more expensive, with fees as high as £24,705 and £21,843 a year respectively.
Lambrook might be cheaper than its rival prep schools, but headmaster Perry clearly believes in its standing amongst the big-hitters. According to parents he “gently waves away anyone who wouldn’t commit to their child going to boarding school at 13” because he wants to maintain Lambrook’s culture as a feeder for Eton. Others say that whilst it’s obvious that he’s still looking for those “types of wealthy, socially aspirational” families, Perry and his “terribly sweet”, “flame-haired” head of admissions Penny Cardwell have had to soften on this policy in recent years since finding “proper toffs who can actually afford it are in short supply these days”.
That same parent insists that the school is still “incredibly impressive”. “Parents rave about it,” she says of all her friends who sends their kids there. The school says it wants children to leave Lambrook as “confident, happy, engaging, mature, considerate and thoughtful young adults” who are “outward-looking global citizens”. With survival skills and chicken-feeding on the timetable, it sounds like the country can look forward to a healthy and green-fingered future king.
