The Duke and Duchess of York are to remove their daughters from the UK's education system and send them to an exclusive school in Switzerland.

Princess Beatrice, 11, has passed the entrance exam to Aiglon College, a co-educational school in Chesi�res-Villars, a small village in the Alps. She will start there in September.

Princess Eugenie, nine, is expected to join her sister at the school next year.

The education at the college, founded 50 years ago, is based on the English curriculum, but its 300 pupils, aged between nine and 18, come from 50 different countries.

Prince Andrew, who was at school with the college's headmaster, has said that both he and the Duchess believe the college's teaching and philosophy are exceptional.

It was his decision to send the girls there, but his ex-wife is said to have been happy to go along with it. The Queen has also approved the decision.

'Exhaustive research'

The Duke revealed the news on the internet, in an interview for the Buckingham Palace Royal Insight magazine, marking his 40th birthday later this month.

He said: "We have done exhaustive research into which school to send them to.

"In the end we feel that the opportunities offered by Aiglon, and the teaching and community philosophy are exceptional, to say nothing of the languages that are available to them there.

"Aiglon is one of the strongest member schools of the Round Square, the grouping of schools around the world which subscribe to the Kurt Hahn education philosophy.

"I was educated at the alma mater of that organisation, Gordonstoun, and I am a patron of Round Square."

The college's mission statement, displayed on its website, says: "Aiglon strives to excel, offering an unusually rounded and challenging education in a secure and friendly international community.

"We aim to equip students with the skills and values necessary to become responsible, positive contributors to the world."

Boarding fees for junior school pupils, aged between 11 and 13, are 45,430 Swiss Francs a year (�17,187), while day fees are 27,155 Swiss Francs (�10,273).

Unsurprisingly, skiing, as well as camping and climbing trips into the mountains, are, in the college's words, "part of the essential character of Aiglon".

It is expected that Beatrice will board at the school when she first joins, but when both girls are there, the Duchess may base herself in Switzerland during term-time so that they can be day pupils.

British curriculum

Dick Davison, of the Independent Schools Information Service, said: "It's not a Swiss school really, it's a school that happens to be in Switzerland.

"It's a British school, founded and run on British lines, and it has a British curriculum."

The princesses, who currently attend Cowarth Park preparatory school in Surrey, will be the first of the Queen's grandchildren to be educated abroad. However, their family home will remain Sunninghill Park in Berkshire, where their parents still live together under the same roof.

As well as the Duke of York, other Royals, including the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal's children, Peter and Zara Phillips, have been educated at Gordonstoun according to the philosophy of German educationalist Kurt Hahn.

Hahn established the school, on the Moray Firth, after fleeing Nazi Germany.