Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to mark special milestone with Prince Archie after Colombia tour
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are preparing for their first official visit to Colombia this week, but Prince Harry and Meghan will also face a significant milestone later this month.
The couple's five-year-old son, Prince Archie, is set to start school in the coming weeks.
In the US, children begin kindergarten at elementary school at around the age of five or six, whereas youngsters in the UK usually start compulsory education in reception in September after they have turned four.
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While Archie and his younger sister, Princess Lilibet, are growing up as private citizens in Montecito in Santa Barbara, Harry and Meghan have shared sweet anecdotes about their children.
In Meghan's interview with The Cut in 2022, it was revealed that Archie does full-days at preschool and is "the cheerful kid who brings a week's worth of freshly picked fruit for his fellow classmates and enjoys playing a 'roaring' game at recess".
Harry and Meghan both reportedly juggle the nursery run inbetween work commitments, with the pair working from their beautifully-decorated home office.
While the Duke attended private schools in the UK, including Wetherby School, Ludgrove and Eton College, Archie and Lilibet's future education may be very different.
Montecito resident Richard Mineards says that the neighbourhood isn't short of fantastic schools for Harry and Meghan to choose from.
"We have very good schools, which are not like England public schools but they're state schools. And we have a very good one called Cold Spring School which has got great ratings and that's in their catchment area," Richard previously told HELLO!'s A Right Royal Podcast.
All about Archie
Archie was born on 6 May 2019 at the Portland Hospital in London, with Harry giving his first interview just hours after his son's birth in Windsor.
The proud new father said: "As every father and parent will ever say, you know, your baby is absolutely amazing, but this little thing is absolutely to-die-for, so I'm just over the moon."
Harry and Meghan then introduced Archie to the world two days after his arrival in a brief photocall at Windsor Castle, and the tot was christened on 6 July 2019.
The Sussexes resided at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor at the time, where Archie spent the first six months of his life.
He also joined his parents on their royal tour to South Africa in September 2019.
After an extended break, where they spent time in Canada, Harry and Meghan announced their decision to step back as senior working royals in January 2020.
After carrying out their final public engagements, the family moved to the US and later bought their current home in Montecito.
While Harry and Meghan do not publicly release official images of their children, several photographs and home videos of Archie and Lilibet were included in their Netflix docuseries, released in December 2022.
When Charles became King in September 2022, as grandchildren of the monarch, Archie and Lilibet became entitled to use the titles of Prince and Princess.
In March 2023, it was confirmed that the Sussex children would use their titles in formal settings, but not in everyday conversational use.
