SOME readers may be disappointed at the lack of coverage in today’s Morning Star of the decision by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to up sticks from Kensington Palace.
In particular, unless they caught a news broadcast today or glance at any other national daily paper on Tuesday, our readers may well have missed one especially heartwarming aspect of the move.
Princess Charlotte and Princes George and Louis will be switching to new schools.
As a “royal source” puts it, “This is very much a decision that two parents have made to give their children the most normal start possible.”
As the parents are downsizing to a four-bedroom cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle, their move places their offspring within range of an array of state-run infant and junior schools in the Windsor and Eton region.
Unfortunately, it appears that none of these schools provide the required level of normality.
The royal young trio will be travelling further afield. In a northerly direction, this would take them to Slough and what might be considered a surfeit of normality.
So their royal highnesses will be heading south instead, towards Bracknell or — as most of the media prefer to describe it — “near Ascot.”
There they will be attending Lambrook School come the beginning of Michaelmas term in September.
This thoroughly normal school is set in 52 acres of playing fields, woodland, a farm and orchard, a 25-metre swimming pool, tennis courts, the Diamond Jubilee Performing Arts Studio, a dance studio and a sports hall.
Some of these facilities are to be found in the new Queen’s Building, a development costing £6 million.
Fees at the “independent” Lambrook School will cost the Cambridges around £62,000 a year. Being a couple who crave normality, how will they be able to afford it?
William is worth around £30m, which is normal for a son of Prince Charles, while Kate’s personal fortune is a little above £6m.
William’s dad pays most of their living costs, but Kate has to pay for her own designer outfits, which is as normal as it gets for most women in Britain today.
Three-quarters of Lambrook’s pupils are boarders, although the royal nippers will travel between home and school daily.
Handily, with what is a delightfully common touch, the Lambrook website lists the local bus routes.
Much of this is indeed normal for about one child in every 14 in Britain. It comes as no surprise that private is the preferred mode of schooling for royal kids. Security concerns may well be a factor.
The overriding reality, though, is that money buys a privileged education, a head start in life, social status and contacts for most if not all of its pupils.
There are several thousand Lambrooks in Britain, rooted in the capitalist class system which they help to perpetuate.
Any party or government seriously committed to ending gross inequality of opportunity in our society would integrate them and their lavish facilities into the state sector.
There are excellent state schools within half an hour’s chauffeured drive from Windsor Castle, thanks to the dedicated work of underpaid teachers in underfunded schools.
If William and Kate Windsor really wanted their offspring to enjoy a normal start in life, at least in terms of their education, where better to send them?
