Prince George’s twelfth birthday is this week, on the 22nd. It’s crazy to think that there have already been two full years of conversation about whether George will go to Eton, and it’s not even about this year. If he goes to Eton, it will be next year, when he turns 13. I think the “two-year conversation” has happened largely because George’s mother, the Princess of Wales, has been publicly lobbying her husband and father-in-law for the right to send George to a coed school, and a non-boarding school. She seems to be particularly keen on sending all three of her kids to her alma mater, Marlborough. But… a few months ago, we heard that the schooling battle royale was over and that George was definitely going to Eton. The problem? The Waleses still haven’t announced it, which leaves room for extending speculation, like this piece in The i Paper:

Lambrook parents aren’t happy: For parents of pupils at Lambrook, a £30,000 per year prep school in Berkshire, having three royal children in class has been both a pleasure and a pain. Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis are, by all accounts, popular and delightful children but their presence at the highly-regarded school near Ascot comes with baggage. “I know that when the Royal Family joined Lambrook, for example, there were a few grumbles about just everything being tightened up and the loss of a very sweet, quite small, family-focused school,” Melanie Sanderson, managing editor of The Good Schools Guide, said. “Suddenly gates were locked. It was harder to drop a forgotten item off. Sports day becomes a grander occasion. The carol service each year becomes a grander occasion. It just changes the dynamic of the school.”

KP hasn’t announced anything: George’s fate is almost certainly already decided, but Kensington Palace shows no sign of wanting to make an announcement about it imminently. Some parents who know the Waleses are adamant that George is going to Eton, where his father Prince William and uncle Prince Harry were educated. It has always been the favourite, with the added benefit of close proximity to the family home at Adelaide Cottage, and Windsor Castle sits just across the Thames.

Marlborough is still a contender? But others who move in royal circles are equally convinced he is headed for £59,143-a-year Marlborough College, his mother’s former school and a possible destination for his sister Charlotte, 10, and Louis, seven, when they are older. Some parents even think they know which house he will be in at Marlborough, perhaps repeating gossip in some newspaper reports, and have voiced similar excitement and apprehension about the possibility of the heir to the throne and his siblings being there.

The Waleses are good at keeping secrets: William and Kate, who have also been to look at University College School and Highgate School in north London, are so well versed in keeping secrets that nobody in the media can be sufficiently sure to stake their reputation on it yet. But their choice for George may say something interesting about him and also about how our young royals are educated in the 21st century.

People really believe that George won’t end up at Eton: Joe Little, a veteran royal watcher and managing editor at Majesty magazine since 1999, wonders whether George’s personality and a more informal style of royalty these days means certain types of school may be better suited to an often serious-looking and self-aware boy. “I just have that feeling that it won’t be Eton,” he said. “I wonder whether it will be too elitist or too fuddy-duddy for a future king in the 21st century. My money is on Marlborough.”

Melanie Sanderson on security & Christianity: “One of the things that the Royal Family have got to really take into consideration is the security arrangements, and one of the reasons that I think he will go to Eton – that’s my guess – is they are well versed there in educating senior royals,” she said. She also cited the opportunity to meet others from a global elite, and how the social background of the pupils and their parents will make them more comfortable around royalty. There is another factor that has not really been brought up until now, she believes: “We’ve got to really remember that, aside from being directly in line to the throne and being our king, George is also going to be the head of the Church of England. In terms of that real and very genuine religious education and approach to practising the Christian faith, I think Eton has got the edge in compulsory chapel.”

[From The i Paper]

There’s also a discussion about whether it would look better for George and his siblings to attend a “state school,” meaning (for Americans), a public school. That’s not going to happen. William and Kate would be horrified to send their children to walk among the working-class peasants to that extent. Which isn’t to say that class isn’t a huge factor here – Kate knows that Eton is where aristocrats, royals and old-money types send their sons. Kate would much rather have her kids educated among new-money and regular middle-class (English middle-class) kids. As for the “compulsory chapel” – that’s probably not a selling point for William, who doesn’t like going to church and isn’t religious in the least. I still think George will go to Eton though! I just think Louis and Charlotte will end up at Marlborough.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.