Infanta Sofía of Spain has announced that she will follow in her elder sister’s footsteps in the autumn when she heads to a new school.
The Spanish Royal Family has announced that Infanta Sofía will attend UWC Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales for the International Baccalaureate program. She completed the entire required selection process through the Spanish Committee of the United World Colleges Foundation. Sofía will start her program in August 2023.
Her sister, The Princess of Asturias, is finishing up her second and final year in the program this spring.
The interdisciplinary program combines both the humanities and STEM subjects, as well as focusing on community service, physical activity, and the arts.
Infanta Sofía will be boarding at the school, like her older sister, and her parents will pay the full tuition cost personally.
The college has had royal connections from its founding in 1962. It was founded by Kurt Hahn, the academic who founded Gordonstoun- Prince Philip and King Charles III’s alma mater.
Several royals from multiple generations and nations have attended UWC Atlantic College. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands attended the school from 1983 to 1985, and his second daughter, Princess Alexia, is currently attending the school.
Princess Elisabeth, The Duchess of Brabant and heir to the Belgian throne, completed the International Baccalaureate program at the school and is now reading history and politics at the University of Oxford.
Princess Raiyah bint Hussein of Jordan was a student at UWC Atlantic College, as well.
The prestigious school calls St. Donat’s Castle home. The earliest surviving pieces of the castle date back to the twelfth century and was built by the Stradling family. The school purchased the castle and the lands from American businessman William Randolph Hurst in 1960.
