Prince George’s first day at Thomas’s Battersea went smoothly, according to his father, the Duke of Cambridge.

He was speaking at a reception for the England under-20 football team, hours after dropping his son off.

He said: "It went well. There was one other parent who had more of an issue with their children - so I was quite pleased I wasn't the one.

"It was really nice actually. It's a nice school."

The prince, who will be known as George Cambridge to his classmates, arrived at school without the Duchess of Cambridge, because she is suffering from severe morning sickness, being pregnant with the couple’s third child.

Ben Thomas, principal of Thomas's London Day Schools and headmaster of Thomas's Battersea for 18 years, said: "The whole aim of these precious early years of education is to give children that confidence in who they are.

"So we are not going to try to mould him into any kind of particular person and we wouldn't do that with any of our pupils.

"I hope he will have the confidence to be himself with all his quirks and his idiosyncrasies and characteristics."

George, along with his 20 classmates, spent his first day getting to know his teachers and his peers.

He will start with half-days and build up to full-time.

Mr Thomas said: "It will be a very, very gentle start. They start with half-days and the moment comes when they get to stay for lunch - which is a really big deal, trying to balance their lunch on their trays.

"Then they will be here eventually for full days and then we will start to introduce them to the breadth of the curriculum."