Even before the first settlers came out to Canterbury on the First Four Ships, James FitzGerald had designed what became known as Big School in 1850 back in England as part of the settlement planned by the Canterbury Association.

[1] The Canterbury Provincial Council, of which FitzGerald had been the first Superintendent (1853–1857),[2] voted £1,000 for the construction of Big School.

[3] Until 1989, the building was still largely in its original condition, when it was extended towards the west by five gabled wings.

With the change of the classification system, the building later became a Category I listing.

From the quadrangle, the viewer sees solid buttresses, rows of lancet windows and a steeply pitched roof.