The original St Margaret's school was founded in 1856 in the building which is now St Margaret's Church Hall in Elba Street. In 1893 the school moved to Whitletts Road where over seventy-three years it developed from a purely primary to a combined primary and secondary school. In August 1966, the secondary department moved to a new building in Mainholm Road next to Mainholm Academy and was renamed Queen Margaret Academy the primary department remained at Whitletts Road and was renamed St John's Primary School.