George, Charlotte and Louis Settle Into New School Before First Day

Prince William and Kate Middleton accompanied their three children: Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4, as they attended a "settling in afternoon" at their new Windsor-based school on Wednesday.

The royals were photographed at the $23,000-a-year Lambrook prep school located seven miles from Queen Elizabeth II's Windsor Castle estate ahead of the children's first official day on Thursday.

This will be Louis' first day at school, having turned four in April, and George and Charlotte previously attended the central London-based Thomas' Battersea school a short distance from the family's Kensington Palace apartment.

"Ahead of their first day at Lambrook School, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, accompanied by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, today attended a settling in afternoon for new pupils at the school," a statement released from Kensington Palace on Wednesday said. "The settling in afternoon is an annual event held to welcome new starters and their families to Lambrook and takes place the day before the start of the new school term."

Traditionally, William and Kate have allowed an official photographer and videographer to capture their children's first days at school with George being accompanied by William in 2017 and Charlotte by William and Kate in 2019.

Images o fWilliam and Kate's family arriving at the "settling in" afternoon were been released shortly after royal watchers were given a unique insight into Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's three-year-old son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor's preschool experience when the duchess was recently shadowed by a reporter in Santa Barbara, California for a magazine profile.

In an interview for New York magazine's The Cut, journalist Allison P. Davis wrote that while outside the school with Meghan: "Somehow Archie knows his mother is at the gate of his preschool before the teacher even throws it open to set him free.

"He's so excited to see her, repeating 'Momma, Momma, Momma' in his little voice, as he runs toward her that he leaves his lunchbox behind on the ground. She scoops him up in a big hug so full of genuine emotion that both close their eyes."

This touching moment is something that Meghan expressed doubt that she could have experienced if she had not stepped down from her role as a senior working royal alongside husband Prince Harry in 2020 and remained in the U.K.

"Earlier in our conversation about her goals for the life she's creating here, she'd remarked upon how, if Archie were in school in the U.K., she'd never be able to do school pickup and drop-off without it being a royal photo call with a press pen of 40 people snapping pictures," Davis wrote.

"Sorry, I have a problem with that," Meghan is quoted as saying. "That doesn't make me obsessed with privacy. That makes me a strong and good parent protecting my child."

There are guidelines in place in the U.K. to protect children from press harassment issued by IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organization, that state "journalists must make sure that they do not publish any photo which might intrude into a child's time at school, include information about the child's (or another child's) welfare without the agreement of a parent, or intrude into the child's privacy."

However, Meghan pointed out this does not govern the taking of photographs, only their publication in the U.K. press. Though IPSO does not directly regulate photography taken by paparazzi agencies, it does apply to their use by domestic media outlets.

The Cambridge children's first days at school come as the family is reported to have recently moved into Adelaide Cottage in the shadow of the queen's Windsor Castle home.

The cottage would allow the family to be closer to the new school as well as closer to the 96-year-old queen who has increasingly delegated royal ceremonial duties to her heirs Prince Charles and William as she continues to experience "episodic mobility problems."

Though Kate's uncle appeared to confirm the news in a recent interview and Kate was recently photographed driving through Windsor town, the Cambridges' move has yet to be officially announced through Kensington Palace.