Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet face ‘culture shock’ with British schools, expert says: They’ll ‘have to catch up a bit’
Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet are about to experience a huge change in their lives.
According to an education expert, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s two children will have a lot to adjust to when they start school in England.
Archie and Lilibet will face ‘culture shock’ with British schools
With the news that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are moving back to the U.K., they also confirmed that their kids will start school there in September.
“I imagine they’ll choose somewhere which won’t be too much of a culture shock when perhaps some of their friends have gone,” Good Schools spokesperson Grace Moody-Stuart told HELLO!
“I don’t know much about American schools, but I do know that academically they’re a bit behind,” she continued. “Our system is much more structured from a very early age.”
British schools are ‘more rigorous’ than in the U.S.
Moody-Stuart emphasized that the curriculum across the pond is much more difficult than in America.
“The rigorousness of the teaching and the homework [is different],” the specialist pointed out.
“I get the impression that’s much more full-on even in a school that isn’t highly academic and highly pressurized. It is more rigorous than it is in the States,” she said.
Harry and Meghan ‘need to be prepared’ to help their kids
Luckily for Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, they’ll have Harry and Meghan to help them through the transition.
“When people move from the U.S., they tend to have to catch up a bit with the English curriculum,” Moody-Stuart noted.
” I think if Harry and Meghan — who knows what their long-term plan is — but if they are planning a kind of English public school for the next stage, then they’ll need to be prepared for that,” she added.
U.K. Schools will teach Archie and Lilibet ‘independence’
Per Moody-Stuart, Archie and Lilibet will quickly learn to advocate for themselves an stand on their own two feet.
“These schools really prepare you for that kind of environment, where you need independence, you need to be able to think for yourself, to organize yourself and you need to be able to show that you can get stuck in,” the expert noted.
“That’s a phrase that they love in these prep schools: getting stuck in, throwing yourself at every opportunity and really taking advantage of what’s on offer. That’s one of the distinctions,” she explained.