LONDON, Aug 22 — Prince William and his wife Kate announced today that they will send all three of their children to the same private school after moving their main home to Windsor.

Kensington Palace said that from September third-in-line Prince George, aged nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and four-year-old Prince Louis will attend Lambrook School, near Ascot in southern England.

The announcement came as the family are shifting their base from their London apartment at Kensington Palace to Adelaide Cottage, in the private Home Park near Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth II lives most of the time.

The family also have a country estate in Norfolk in eastern England and a holiday cottage in Scotland.

A royal source said that the royals, formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, wanted to “give their children the ‘most normal’ start possible”.

“KP (Kensington Palace) can be a little bit of a fishbowl,” the source added.

“They wanted to be able to give George, Charlotte and Louis a bit more freedom than they have living in central London.” Lambrook, is a co-educational private school for children aged four to 13 and its facilities include a nine-hole golf course.

At the current annual fees, sending three children there would cost more than ?50,000 (RM264,615).

The Times reported the school has “several peacocks” and former pupils included the aristocrat Lord Alfred Douglas, the lover of writer Oscar Wilde.

In a royal connection, Queen Victoria used to come and visit two of her grandsons who were pupils there, according to the school’s website.

George and Charlotte previously went to a school in west London, Thomas’s Battersea. The family said their new school “shares a similar ethos and values”.

The move announcement comes as William’s brother Prince Harry and his wife Meghan plan to stay in Frogmore Cottage, a short distance from Adelaide Cottage at Windsor, while visiting the UK to attend charity events in September.

But William and Kate are reportedly not planning to meet them.

Prince Andrew, who has quit as a working royal and settled a sexual abuse lawsuit in the United States, also lives nearby on the Windsor estate. — AFP