Prince George's first day at school...

Prince George recently started attending school, much like most children across the country but this is considered news worthy. The reason why it caught my eye was due to the nature of the royal’s educational history.

Both Prince William and Prince Harry attended private schools, enabling them to have the cultural capital to negotiate and stay the higher levels of societal status. Even the Duchess of Cambridge attended a fee paying school, which undoubtedly enabled her to fit in with the culture and traditions of the monarchy. Prince George is now attending a prep school which would require payment of £18,000 per a year. It would be interesting to see what happens when Princess Charlotte is school ready where she will be attending, following in her brothers footsteps or will an alternative path be followed? 

See the BBC article for the full breakdown of Prince George’s school and his first day:

Reference: Prince George starts first day at school

Now sociologically, looking at this we can begin to recognise that having access to these private schools is beneficial for a multitude of reasons. Marxists would argue this enables for the bourgeoisie to remain amongst the powerful, maintaining that ‘old boys’ club. This would mean the desired capital to be within the ruling class is gained by the next generation to reinforce the class differences. I would use this example of the royals to demonstrate Bourdieu’s ideas of Capital when teaching education and discuss what these schools offer to enable these young royals to stay within the position of power and interact with the elite of the world. 

Below is an article from the BBC which explains the educational history of the royal family:

Reference: Royals continue private school tradition for Prince George