The Day School
Bishop Sumner was not only interested in making the church more effective, but also in educating the children of the working classes and he encouraged the building of church schools.
Christ Church had a day school from the time it opened in 1849. The large room under the east end of the church was used as a classroom where boys and girls were taught to read and write and. master arithmetic. This was before the act of 1870 when schooling. became compulsory. We know that 760 children attended the school in the schoolroom below the church. The lectern in church was given in memory of one of the teachers, Elizabeth Harrison.
At the Annual Vestry Meeting of 1880, it was reported that the school was full to overflowing and that a separate school building was urgently needed. A piece of land bordering Borough Road was purchased from the Earl of Shrewsbury and a school with separate departments for boys, girls and infants was built. It was opened on St Michael's Day, September 29th 1883. It was known as a higher grade school and had a reputation for very good teaching.
On Sundays before St Michael's Church was built some of the rooms were used for worship. The folding screens which separated two or three classrooms were drawn back and a Communion Table placed at one end. Desks were pushed back and rows of chairs put out Elderly past pupils can still remember one classroom being called the Chancel Room.
During the Second War War the school was badly damaged in an air raid on March 9th 1941 and the few pupils who had not been evacuated moved into the Woodlands School and shared their building until 1954 when a new school was opened on the original site. This became a church maintained school.
Christ Church keeps a link with the school by having three members of the church on the governing body. The Vicar is usually the Chairman of the Governors. The clergy pay a weekly visit to the school to take assemblies and at festival times the children and teachers are invited to join the congregation at morning worship.