By George! Look who's turning 12

Just one year before he becomes a teenager, the second in line to the throne is facing big changes in his immediate future...

- Rebecca Russell Deputy Royal Editor

FROM THE moment he was born, Prince George's life has been mapped out in front of him. And, even though his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are committed to giving him a similar childhood to the one his mother cherished, his destiny as the future King inches ever closer.

But the arrival of his 12th birthday tomorrow marks perhaps the biggest milestone in his life since his birth for a variety of significant reasons.

"Being a 'tweenager' comes with a lot of challenges," says former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond about the second-in-line to the throne's birthday. "It will seem to George that his world is getting bigger on every level: physical, mental, emotional and social. He must already have had a very emotional year and a half since his grandfather and his mother were diagnosed with cancer and now he knows that he is in his last year of being wrapped in the familiar blanket of living with his parents and siblings 24/7 before he moves to big school next September.

"The decision about where he will go and study next has undoubtedly already been made, and I'm sure that George was very influential in it. Nevertheless, it's a big change hovering on his horizon, and it's bound to be quite unsettling."

Anticipation is running high that the prince will attend Eton, Prince William's alma mater, although the Prince and Princess of Wales have visited rival schools including the coeducational Marlborough College, attended by Kate herself, in recent months.

"I hope that William and Catherine will be radical enough to keep all three siblings together at a day school, possibly with the option of them boarding a few days a week if they choose," says Ms Bond. "But, since William and Catherine both went to boarding school and seemed to quite enjoy it, I fear that George will follow suit. And all of a sudden we shall have to start thinking of him not as a child, but as a young adolescent."