St. Michael's College was established in Grove Road, Hitchin—next to the site of a new Catholic church—in 1903 by Fr. A. Prével of the Society of Saint Edmund. In 1925, the priests from the Order of Augustinians of the Assumption assumed control of both the church and the college.
St. Michael's College was a Catholic boys' school which housed a number of boarding pupils. In 1953, following a General Inspection, the College was granted temporary recognition as a privategrammar school and this status was made permanent in 1958
The expansion of Stevenage New Town during the 1960s led to the relocation of the school to Sandown Road, Stevenage, in 1968. It changed its name to St. Michael's School RC School.
In 1985, the process of merging St. Michael's School with St. Angela's School for Girls began. The merging process was completed in 1987 under the leadership of Chair of Governors, John Alan Scouller[7] and the site of St. Michael's was sold, while the new "John Henry Newman School" moved to the former site of St. Angela's on Hitchin Road. The name of the school commemorates Cardinal St John Henry Newman.The School then changed its name to the Saint John Henry Newman School in 2019 after the canonisation of John Henry Newman in the Vatican city
Lewis Hamilton (b. 1985) - racing driver.[10] Hamilton left the school at 15, after being wrongfully expelled by the Headmaster. He was reinstated following an appeal to the school board.[11][12]