Not surprisingly a rivalry grew up between the children of the British School and the local Church run school (the Iron School and later the National School).
The teachers and managers co-operated though, as this extract from the British School records shows.
Schools at the time used some of the more able older pupils as Pupil Teachers to teach the young ones.

The extract reads:
"The School visited by two clergymen of this town to day Revds. Brierly & Watcham: the former desired me to know whether any of my bigger boys would be agreeable to be apprenticed as a pupil teacher at their new National School, but on making enquiries, none of them seemed to Care for it."

The children of the British School were also taken to the ceremony where the first stone was laid for the new National School.

More about the new National School...