 Michael Yates was educated first at the Downs School near Malvern, where he learned painting from the arts master Maurice Feild, later associated with the Euston Road School and a teacher at the Slade School of Art, who remained a lifelong friend of Yates.At the Downs, he also met the poet W. H. Auden, then an English master at the school, who became a lifelong friend.During 1933–38, Yates was a pupil at the Bryanston School, where he was honoured as head boy.