Prince George has taken a major step toward independence, arriving at Eton College for his first day with Prince William and Princess Kate walking beside him.

The 13-year-old officially joined the prestigious boarding school on September 8, ending four years at Lambrook School and beginning a new chapter away from the everyday company of Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Yet George’s choice of school carries a family story stretching back decades.

He is following the same path as William — a path that represented a dramatic break with royal tradition when Princess Diana helped choose Eton for her eldest son.

George arrived with both parents beside him

William and Kate accompanied their eldest child to the school, carrying umbrellas as the family walked through the grounds.

They passed the bronze statue of Eton’s founder, King Henry VI, before meeting headmaster Simon Henderson and provost Sir Nicholas Coleridge.

Henderson kept his greeting reassuringly simple.

“Welcome,” he told George. “Good luck. Enjoy it.”

George initially arrived wearing a conventional suit and tie.

Official photographs released later by Kensington Palace showed a very different sight: the young prince dressed as an Eton pupil for the first time.

He wore the school’s famous black tailcoat with a matching waistcoat, pinstriped trousers and stiff white collar.

One photograph echoed William’s own first day

For William, accompanying his son carried an obvious personal significance.

He had made the same transition 31 years earlier.

William arrived at Eton in 1995 accompanied by his own parents, beginning a school experience that would become particularly important following Diana’s death two years later.

Now he was returning not as a pupil, but as a father bringing his eldest child through the same gates.

And George reportedly wanted that connection.

A source close to the family previously told PEOPLE: “George has always wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps.”

But William attending Eton was once a royal departure

George may now be continuing a family tradition, but William’s decision to attend Eton actually broke one.

Previous generations had followed a different route.

Prince Philip attended Gordonstoun in the Scottish Highlands, and King Charles later went there as well.

The famously demanding school was therefore an obvious precedent for another future king.

Diana had other ideas.

According to The Four Wives of Windsor author Simon Vigar, sending William to Eton was “very much a Diana decision.”

Her own family already had connections to the school, with both her father and brother having attended.

There was another practical advantage: Eton was far closer to home than Gordonstoun.

Vigar noted that Charles had not been happy during his time at the Scottish school.

William ultimately had a much more positive experience at Eton.

Eton became William’s refuge after Diana died

The decision took on a deeper significance in 1997.

William was 15 when Diana died.

Suddenly, the teenager found himself grieving his mother while facing extraordinary public attention.

Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith has described Eton’s importance during that period in particularly striking terms.

“Eton was a much-needed haven for William,” she told PEOPLE.

His school offered a degree of structure and normality at an exceptionally difficult moment.

Nearly three decades later, William has chosen that same environment for his own son.

George is separating from Charlotte and Louis at school

Until now, the three Wales children had shared much of their school life.

George, Charlotte, 11, and Louis, 8, had all attended Lambrook since the family moved to Windsor in 2022.

That arrangement has now changed.

Charlotte and Louis will remain at Lambrook while their older brother moves on to Eton.

George has previously spent some nights boarding at Lambrook, William revealed, so the basic experience of sleeping away from his family will not be entirely new.

But Eton marks his first experience as a full-time boarding student.

Home is still remarkably close

Despite that greater independence, George will not be isolated from his family.

Eton is close to Windsor, where William and Kate have based their family since leaving London in 2022.

That means George can return home and continue spending time with Charlotte, Louis and his parents.

William had a similar advantage.

During his own Eton years, he could visit nearby Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip lived.

William has recalled going to see his grandparents for informal conversations over tea and cake.

For a future king, those visits offered something few classmates could experience: time with the reigning monarch who also happened to be his grandmother.

George now begins school in the same area, although under a different set of family circumstances.

George arrives at Eton more visible than ever

The milestone also comes as George gradually becomes more prominent in royal life.

Over the past year, he has appeared at major public occasions including Wimbledon and Buckingham Palace balcony events.

At 13, however, his primary focus remains his education rather than royal duties.

Those around him have described a thoughtful and serious young teenager, drawing comparisons with William at a similar age.

George has also experienced a challenging period within his family.

He was only 10 when Kate announced in 2024 that she was undergoing cancer treatment.

George, Charlotte and Louis remained close to their mother throughout that period.

Bedell Smith believes the experience may have contributed to George’s growing maturity.

“For George, it had to be a maturing experience that has given him an extra measure of empathy,” she said.

She also pointed to the stability of the home William and Kate have created for their children as one of George’s greatest advantages.

His new school carries more than 500 years of history

George is joining an institution founded by King Henry VI in 1440.

Eton has educated 20 British prime ministers as well as generations of prominent figures, and its fees are around $80,000 a year.

The traditional uniform George wore in his official photographs remains one of the school’s most recognizable features.

Behind that historic appearance, however, Eton continues to modernize.

Its facilities include plans for a state-of-the-art indoor sports complex featuring a dojo, golf simulator and rifle range.

George will also have to learn the school’s distinctive terminology and traditions as he settles into life there.

William has now completed a full-circle journey

There was nothing particularly ceremonial about the final exchange captured on George’s first day.

A headmaster welcomed a new pupil.

His parents walked beside him.

A 13-year-old began at a new school.

But behind those ordinary details sits an unusual amount of family history.

Diana helped steer William away from the royal precedent of Gordonstoun and toward Eton.

Eton later gave William a refuge during one of the most traumatic periods of his childhood.

William grew up, became a father and eventually researched schools for his own eldest son.

And George wanted to follow him.

Thirty-one years after William arrived as a nervous new pupil, he returned to those familiar grounds with Kate — this time to watch the next generation walk through the gates.