Prince George followed in his father’s footsteps on Monday by starting as a student at the elite Eton College just outside of Windsor, in the U.K.
The young prince was dropped off at the 600-year-old institution by his parents, William and Kate, The Prince and Princess of Wales, with footage showing them smiling as they were greeted by Eton’s headteacher, Simon Henderson.
Prince George joins a growing list of senior royals who attended Eton, including his father, the future king, and his uncle, Prince Harry.
Eton is one of the U.K.’s most elite academic institutions, steeped in tradition and famous for its network of powerful alumni, including 20 British prime ministers, most recently Boris Johnson and David Cameron. The school is also close to Windsor Castle, one of the royal family’s most well-known residences.
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Actors Hugh Laurie, Damian Lewis, Eddie Redmayne, Dominic West and Tom Hiddleston also attended Eton.
It retains many traditions, with students wearing tailcoats as part of their uniform as well as waistcoats and gowns, and referring to teachers as “beaks.”
Fees for the all-boys boarding school, which was founded by King Henry VI in 1440, are about £65,000 ($121,000) a year.
Prince George, who is second in line to the throne behind his father, previously attended the private Lambrook School, also near Windsor, with his sister, Princess Charlotte, and younger brother, Prince Louis.
Prince William became the first royal to attend Eton. His father, King Charles III, went to Gordonstoun, the same private school on the north coast of Scotland that his father, Prince Philip, had attended, but found life and the notoriously rigid institution challenging.
The Prince of Wales has said he enjoyed his time at the Eton and recently discussed how he would often pop into Windsor Castle at weekends for tea with his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Prince George’s first day coincided with the fourth anniversary of the death of his great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
According to a June Vanity Fair article, in his memoir Spare, Prince Harry described his time at Eton as a “profound shock” and recalled William asking him to pretend they didn’t know each other.
Prince William had already been at the school for two years when Prince Harry joined about a year after their mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a Paris car crash.
“He was forging his own life, and he wasn’t willing to give that up,” he wrote, adding that sports were his lifeline during his time as an Eton pupil.
— with files from Reuters
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