What an exciting milestone! Kate Middleton and Prince William‘s daughter Princess Charlotte stepped out for her very first day of nursery school on Monday, Jan. 8 — and the royal couple shared the sweetest pics of the tot on her way to class! “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share two photographs of Princess Charlotte at Kensington Palace this morning. The images were taken by the Duchess shortly before Princess Charlotte left for her first day of nursery at the Willcocks Nursery School,” the snapshots were captioned.

Royal fans couldn’t contain their excitement over the new images. “Awww! She’s so cute and big!” one person commented with another writing, “The cutest little princess there ever was!” Kate and William, both 35, announced alongside their 2017 Christmas card that their little girl would be attending London’s Willcocks Nursery School starting in January.

The school is conveniently located close to the family’s Kensington Palace home, next to London’s Royal Albert Hall. According to In Touch, Charlotte’s tuition is $12,000 per year. “Kate and William will be by her side during the first few days to help her adjust,” a source told the outlet. “With her outgoing personality, it probably won’t take long!”

The choice came as a surprise to some fans. Many assumed the couple would send Charlotte to Thomas’s Battersea, the same school her older brother, Prince George, 4, began attending in September 2017. He previously started nursery school when he was two-and-a-half (the same age Charlotte is now) at Westacre Montessori School, which was located near William and Kate’s Amner Hall country home. Unlike George, however, Charlotte will go to preschool full-time.

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“Charlotte really misses George when he’s at school and gets bored without him around. She’s always asking when he’ll be home,” a source told In Touch. That said, Kate and William think it will be good for their toddler to socialize with children her age.

Earlier this year, William — who’s expecting baby No. 3 with Kate next spring — adorably revealed his son is already sick of going to school. “I just dropped George off and he didn’t want to go,” the Duke told fans at an event in September. Then in December, William sweetly confessed that George played a sheep in his school’s Nativity play. We would have loved to see photos from that!

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