--- title: Princess Charlotte Started School on Thursday description: The royal family, including Prince William and Kate Middleton, brought Princess Charlotte to her first day of school on Thursday. canonical: https://time.com/5669664/princess-charlotte-going-to-school/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-05T13:41:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:04.456Z og:title: The Royal Family Was All Smiles for Princess Charlotte's First Day of School og:description: The 4-year-old is 'very excited' og:url: https://time.com/5669664/princess-charlotte-going-to-school/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt313d65f43ff5b867/698a026e0116820c9397e26c/princess-charlotte-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Princess Charlotte's First Day Of School og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Royal Family Was All Smiles for Princess Charlotte's First Day of School twitter:description: The 4-year-old is 'very excited' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt313d65f43ff5b867/698a026e0116820c9397e26c/princess-charlotte-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Royal Family Was All Smiles for Princess Charlotte's First Day of School > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 5, 2019 1:41 PM UTC  Princess Charlotte arrives for her first day of school, with her brother Prince George and her parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at Thomas's Battersea in London on Sept. 5, 2019. Princess Charlotte arrives for her first day of school, with her brother Prince George and her parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at Thomas's Battersea in London on Sept. 5, 2019.WPA Pool/Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 5, 2019 1:41 PM UTC Summer vacation is ending for children everywhere—including [Princess Charlotte of Cambridge](https://time.com/5581063/princess-charlotte-fourth-birthday-photo/), who started school on Thursday accompanied by her parents, Prince William and Kate Middleton, and her brother, Prince George. Like her older brother, 4-year-old Princess Charlotte is attending the London private school Thomas’s Battersea, [_People_ reports](https://people.com/royals/princess-charlotte-starts-school-prince-george-kate-middleton-prince-william-drop-off/). On her way into the school, a uniformed Princess Charlotte held hands with a beaming Kate Middleton, who _People_ reports had to miss [George’s first day of school](https://time.com/4931142/prince-george-first-day-elementary-school/) due to extreme morning sickness while [pregnant with Prince Louis](https://time.com/5192470/royal-baby-name-louis-arthur-charles/).  Princess Charlotte arrives for her first day of school, with her brother Prince George and her parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at Thomas's Battersea in London on Sept. 5, 2019. WPA Pool/Getty Images A tweet from Kensington Palace shows both royal children and parents shaking hands with Helen Haslem, the head of the lower school, as they entered the school grounds. And though Princess Charlotte appeared to have a case of a first day nerves at first, clutching her mother’s hand and hiding behind her, Prince William summed up her feelings: “First day — very excited,” according to _People._ > [](https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1169522839181041666)  Princess Charlotte arrives for her first day of school, with her brother Prince George and her parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at Thomas's Battersea in London on Sept. 5, 2019. WPA Pool—Getty Images School follows an eventful summer for the royal children, who were seen [stealing the show](https://time.com/5600594/trooping-the-colour-2019/) at Queen Elizabeth II’s Trooping the Colour parade in June. Of course, royal fans couldn’t get enough. > [](https://twitter.com/JessicaMorrey92/status/1169536543389675520) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5669664/princess-charlotte-going-to-school/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5669664/princess-charlotte-going-to-school/"},"headline":"The Royal Family Was All Smiles for Princess Charlotte's First Day of School","datePublished":"2019-09-05T13:41:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:46:04.456Z","description":"The 4-year-old is 'very excited'","url":"https://time.com/5669664/princess-charlotte-going-to-school/","keywords":["Newsfeed","royals","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt313d65f43ff5b867/698a026e0116820c9397e26c/princess-charlotte-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt313d65f43ff5b867/698a026e0116820c9397e26c/princess-charlotte-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Princess Charlotte's First Day Of School","caption":"Princess Charlotte's First Day Of School","creditText":"WPA Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5669664/princess-charlotte-going-to-school/","name":"The Royal Family Was All Smiles for Princess Charlotte's First Day of School"}}]}] ```