Kate Middleton married into the royal family in 2011, but before that she was a civilian just like everyone else - well almost. Marlborough College - one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country which now charges £42,930 per annum - is where she spent those crucial teenage years.
The Princess of Wales was educated at the co-educational independent full-boarding school between 1996 and 2000. She is said to have thrived and enjoyed becoming part of the school hockey team, according to Hello! magazine.
The self-proclaimed largest of its kind in the UK, with a prestigious worldwide reputation, Marlborough College sits on the edge of the charming market town and benefits from 286 acres of land. It boasts period buildings including a Gothic Revival chapel and the neoclassical Memorial Hall, which doubles up as a world-call concert hall.
READ MORE: 48 Wiltshire secondary schools Ofsted rankings ahead of application deadline
The campus itself is centered around the Marlboorugh Mound, a 4,000-year-old Neolithic mound, reputedly the burial place of Merlin.
But what does it take to be one of the 1,000 pupils who walk these elite halls? Money and a lot of preparation. According to the school website, boarding at the school is priced at £14,310 per term for the academic year of 2022/23, with both scholarships and bursaries available and admission is no walk in the park either.
The website outlines admissions procedures, with a Marlborough College Admissions Test and the Common Entrance examinations in order to keep pupils fully engaged academically - with admission processes taking up to four years in some cases.
But what do people really think about Marlborough College? A review by the Which School Advisor website states that although the school as become best known in recent years for educating the future Queen, there is "some concern, rejected by the school, that the resulting pressure on and competition for places has diluted the traditional welcome of the school to a mixed ability intake and a historic avoidance of the hothouse atmosphere of its top tier counterparts".
That said, Marlborough College was graded Excellent in its latest published ISI Educational Quality report in 2018. The organisation's final view indicates that the school "divides opinion".
This is stated in no small part both because it is less selective in its entrance than the hothouse schools and less prescriptive and authoritarian in its educational approach. It adds: "The resulting mix of students, whilst always seen as one of Marlborough’s great strengths, has traditionally led to an array of very different outcomes and experiences for its pupils.
"Whether the school will be right for your children is further complicated by the (significant) differences between boarding houses even within the school. Quite regardless, having a chance for a place requires “long game” planning of at least four years prior to the required date of entry, the benefit of which, however, is a requirement for a number of visits to the school upon which a final decision, and the pros and cons behind it, will be more clear cut."
Kate is not the only well-known face to have walked the halls of Marlborough College, with comedian Jack Whitehall and David Cameron's wife Samantha among others to have gone on to be in the public eye.
You can stay up to date on the top news near you with Wiltshire Live's FREE newsletters – enter your email address at the top of the page or sign up to our newsletters.
READ NEXT:
