St Michael's School was founded by the church in 1840 as an Infants School for boys and girls and a Junior Boys' School. Schools that were founded by the Church of England were known as National Schools. The parents of children who attended National Schools had to pay two pence a week, a substantial sum of money for a family dependent on a father's earnings that might be only a few shillings a week (1 shilling = 12 pence).
The first entries in the 1846 pages of the school register.