Prince George poses for official first day of school picture

Prince George may have looked a little nervous arriving for his first day of school but a new official photograph to mark the big occasion shows a very different four-year-old.

In the photo, Prince George can be seen holding Prince William’s hand. The young royal has one hand in his pocket and is flashing his signature cheeky grin.

Surprisingly, this wasn’t taken after he had been let out of school (or hell, as some children like to call it). Instead, it was shot just before George and William left Kensington Palace in the morning.

“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share a photograph of the Duke and Prince George at Kensington Palace this morning. The image was taken shortly before Prince George left for his first day of school at Thomas’s Battersea,” a Kensington Palace spokesperson said.

“Their Royal Highnesses are delighted to share this lovely picture as Prince George starts school, and would like to thank everyone for all of the kind messages they have received.”

While the Duchess of Cambridge stayed at home to recover from morning sickness brought on by her third pregnancy, Prince William stayed with George at Thomas’s Battersea school until he was settled.

Then, he left to host a reception for England’s Under-20 football team. While there, William revealed that George’s first day “went well”, adding “there was one other parent who had more of an issue with their children – so I was quite pleased I wasn’t the one.”

The former headmaster of Thomas’s Battersea and current principal of Thomas’s London Day Schools insisted to a group of reporters that George will be treated like everyone else during his time at the school.

“There has been a lot of planning, as you can imagine, but the emphasis has very much been on making sure [disruption] doesn’t happen,” Ben Thomas said. “I think today has been very exciting, but very quickly I think that will calm down. We’ll be looking forward to a time, which I think will come very soon, when he’s just another Thomas’s pupil.”

Thomas also mentioned what George’s first few days will consist of, saying: “Here at Thomas’s we have three principles: enjoyment, learning and achievement. For lower school children it’s all about the enjoyment. We are going to try to make this a really happy, safe and secure time.”

“The emphasis will be on a very, very gentle start. They start with half days and then the moment comes when they get to stay for lunch, which is a really big deal trying to balance their lunch on their trays. And then they will be here eventually for full days and then we start to introduce them to the breadth of the curriculum. But the emphasis is on making sure they feel safe, they feel secure and they feel happy. If we get that in place, then they’ll start to explore.”

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