• Princess Eleanor has started classes at the boarding school in Wales (and without uniform)
  • Photographs https://www.elmundo.es/loc/casa-real/2023/02/07/63e1fc50fc6c8307548b45da.html
  • Casa Real Leonor and the 'mili' that awaits her: from her secret childhood to "getting tired of her"

The Princess of Asturias lives this Saturday a special day. From the morning, she and the rest of the UWC Atlantic College classmates welcome their relatives to the boarding school where they have spent the last two years. It is the only day on which the parents of the students have express authorization to be at school and visit their children, since the policy of the center is that during the course the meetings are limited as much as possible, to be able to be only during the holiday period. Except today, they celebrate graduation in a ceremony that recovers the splendor of the years before the pandemic. Leonor ends school this May 20.

The Heiress to the throne closes a stage that began on September 7, 2007 in thenursery school that the Royal Guard has in the main barracks of El Pardo. The then Infanta was about to turn two years old and her parents chose a center in which she surrounded herself with the children of the workers of the body that is dedicated to the protection of the King. A year later he began school in Santa María de los Rosales, the private and Catholic school in which his father was trained. Leonor became another student and for 12 years the pose at the door of the school on the first day of class became a fixed appointment for the paparazzi, aware that it was one of the only times they saw the Princess.

Because the protection of the daughters of the Kings during their childhood has been an obsession of their parents. That they were not overexposed, that nothing leaked from their private lives. And they have succeeded. Although the Princess has attended some birthdays of friends, has held parties in Zarzuela and has even participated in school festivals, has not transcended an image of the girl beyond appearances in institutional events. Not a post on social networks that made the Princess viral in her free time.

Started kindergarten in 2007GTRES

But that protection was put to the test two years ago, when they decided it was time for the Princess to go to high school. They looked for schools in the United Kingdom and, perhaps inspired by Elizabeth of the Belgians, became interested in UWC Atlantic College in Wales, a boarding school that is far from the English school canons for girls historically chosen by the upper class. A secular center, mixed and without uniform, with students of all nationalities. A school that celebrates Pride week, is committed to the environment and develops leaders. And, to make everything easier, offered by the International Baccalaureate, a modality that, once passed, allows Doña Leonor not to take the Baccalaureate Evaluation for Access to the Spanish University but that is also much more demanding. Students take core subjects of Science and Letters, they also have to present a monographic work of 4,000 words in the form of an Essay -this article has 900- and accredit hours of volunteering and service.

The Princess arrived in Wales on 30 August 2021. He flew on a commercial plane and without his parents: only with a small security team that has accompanied him in the United Kingdom since then and a photographer from the House, who took the snapshots of his first hours at the boarding school. The presence of bodyguards is common in the school, as Leonor is one of many daughters who inhabit its corridors. These two courses, in addition to Alexia from the Netherlands, have been in Wales the heirs of billionaires and politicians from all over the Globe, thanks to which the scholarships of other students are financed. The private option of the school amounts to 76,482 euros for the two courses, a cost assumed by the Kings.

First day of school

Upon arrival, the Princess was assigned a room with three other girls, all of different nationalities and languages. The young women must take care of their rooms and in this second year they have released facilities, renovated this year along with the toilets. Leonor found it difficult to adapt to the food of the boarding school and has noticed a lot of change between the first year and the second, because the level of demand is very high. However, the Princess has successfully passed the course and with today's graduation closes a stage forever. Because at eleven o'clock at night they must leave the center.

The graduation ceremony is held in a tent and includes speeches by students, musical performances and the presentation of diplomas. Behind her, if time permits, the relatives of the alumni form a corridor in one of the gardens to applaud the young people, who walk through it celebrating their deed. It is expected that on this day, in which the Kings Don Felipe and Doña Letizia will coincide with Guillermo and Máxima of the Netherlands, some photo will be distributed, the second of Leonor in Wales, which closes a stage with the same discretion with which it began. Because in these two years in which the Kings have not had direct control of their daughter, not a single image of her unknown life in boarding school has been leaked.

  • United Kingdom
  • Princess Eleanor
  • Articles Marina Pina

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