The Board established and administered schools where parents contributed one-third of the building costs and guaranteed an average attendance of at least 30 pupils.

Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.

[19][20][1] At a meeting of local residents in the North Ipswich immigration depot in April 1865, a Mr Fitzgibbon moved that a primary school of the vested class be founded under the Board of General Education.

[25][1] The school originally operated from a timber building, divided into separate rooms for the boys and girls, which was "very pleasantly situated on an eminence commanding a fine view".

[23][27] In the 1860s North Ipswich was mostly thick bush, and pupils who rode to school kept their horses in a paddock fronting Lawrence Street.

[41] In 1887 it was reported that North Ipswich was rapidly advancing, with new houses near the new workshops, plus a police station and barracks and a Post and Telegraph Office built within the preceding year.

[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][1] Many of the programmes have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland, including the construction of masonry brick school building s across the state.

Most were designed in a classical idiom as this projects the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings.

[1] The construction of substantial brick school building s (type E/B1)[66] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government's commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.

Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.

[68][1] Despite their similarities, each Depression-era brick school building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set.

These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments.

[70] The drawings for the new school at North Ipswich (1933) are initialled F.T.J (drawn and traced), presumably Frederick Thomas Jellet, born in 1898, trained in Victoria and employed by the Queensland Department of Works as a temporary draftsman in the 1920s.

[1] The new building at Ipswich North State School had two storeys and an undercroft, was rectangular in shape and was designed in a Neo-classical style.

In 1942, during World War II, air raid trenches were dug in the lower playground,[90] and between the mid-1940s and mid-1950s the school committee grassed the oval and planted trees along Downs Street.

The northern verandahs of the brick school building were enclosed with groups of nine awning windows after 1951;[94] a ventilation shaft was installed from the infant boys' lavatory to the roof, through the cloakrooms, in 1952;[95] and a room (probably the front classroom on the second floor) was converted into a library in 1955.

The heritage register boundary encompasses the western portion of the allotment (1.32 hectares (3.3 acres)); an area consistent with the 1871 school reserve and defined by two level rectangular platforms surrounded by concrete retaining walls (1934–37).

Facing Fitzgibbon Street, the prominent Depression-era brick school building (Block A, 1934–37) is situated on the northern platform and makes an important visual contribution to the streetscape, and is a landmark for the area.

The projecting entrance bay features a gabled pediment over a central first floor doorway, which has a rendered aedicule and is accessed from a landing flanked by stairs.

The projecting gabled wing to the northwest features similar classical detailing but is narrower and without external stairs; as are the two pedimented bays that frame the south elevation of the range.

[1] The interior layout of the central range is symmetrical, with face brick stairwells at the east and west ends flanked by enclosed landings (former hat rooms) that are used for storage and offices.

The classrooms have plaster walls with picture rails, timber-framed floors covered with modern carpet, and flat sheeted ceilings with timber battens.

Windows to external walls are predominately banks of tall narrow-sash casements with fanlights, set between the face brick pilasters.

[1] The northern platform (1934) is roughly square in plan and features a centenary memorial entrance gate (1967) on the corner, at the intersection of Downs and Fitzgibbon Streets.

Block A is prominently sited on the platform, set back from Fitzgibbon Street behind a symmetrically arranged landscaped area with garden beds and a semicircular concrete pathway.

The principal characteristics it demonstrates include: its two-storey form, with an undercroft; face brick exterior; high-quality design with classical influence and detailing; central range symmetrically arranged around a projecting entrance bay; and terracotta-tiled hipped roof.

Through its substantial size, high quality materials, face brick exterior, elegant formal composition and decorative treatment, the Depression-era brick school building at Ipswich North State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, which evoke the sense of progress and permanence that the Queensland Government sought to embody in new public buildings in that era.

[1] The building's assertive massing, classically influenced design, and elegant composition contribute to its dignified streetscape presence, and contrast with the surrounding small-scale residences and commercial premises.

Prominently sited and set within terraced grounds comprising two level platforms articulated by Depression-era concrete retaining walls, the building is a landmark for the area.

They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.