The earliest section was erected in 1871 from local ironbark and pine and was designed for the Board of Education by Brisbane architect, Richard George Suter.

[1] In 1869, to facilitate primary education in the new agricultural districts, the colonial government introduced a system of provisional schools for smaller communities that could guarantee a student population of 15 (later reduced to 12).

Many provisional schools were conducted in slab huts and barns - often an existing structure offered by a local farmer.

After some debate as to the most accessible location, a site was selected in the centre of the town of Waterford, which had been surveyed in 1866 on the eastern side of the Logan River.

Students who lived to the north and west of the Logan River attended school via the ferry, until the first Waterford Bridge opened in 1876.

[1] Tenders for a national school at Waterford were called in late 1870, the contract being let to Robert Hardy and John Ford of Beenleigh with a price of £140.

The early Suter timber schools were low-set, gabled structures, rectangular in plan with a porch and no verandahs, and utilised external studding to the walls.

After 1873 Suter introduced an "improved plan" adding front and rear verandahs to provide hat rooms and additional play and classroom space.

[1] In 1876 David Ewart, General Inspector for the Department of Public Instruction, described the Waterford school building as measuring 30 by 16 feet (9.1 by 4.9 m), with an entrance porch and no verandahs.

The Act also abolished the Board of General Education, which had been responsible for the design of schools in Queensland, and created the Department of Public Instruction.

Robert Ferguson developed new designs, which remained in use until 1893, after which responsibility passed back to the Department of Public Works.

In their designs the Ferguson brothers incorporated roof fleches or vents at high level in the gable walls.

In 1884 a 10-foot (3.0 m) wide verandah was added to the back of the school building, providing additional classroom space.

Drawings show that the second classroom was of single-skin construction with studding exposed externally on the verandahs and internally on the new gable end.

[1] In 1910 the north-west gabled end of the school building was clad with weatherboards, covering the exposed stud framing, to prevent water damage where the original pine lining had shrunk.

[1] From the 1960s the Waterford State School experienced a substantial increase in enrolments, reflecting the expansion of semi-urban settlement in the district.

When this was occupied in 1969, the early school building was used as a library (accommodated on the enclosed rear verandah) and a tuckshop.

The windows in the 1888-1889 section are tall vertical pivot in banks of three and have higher sills than those in the verandah walls of the 1871 building.

[1] The play shed is a typical hipped-roof, 10-post type with an enclosure at the south-west end facing the road.

[1] Waterford State School (Block A and Play Shed) was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 16 October 2008 having satisfied the following criteria.

Waterford State School (Block A) is a rare and early national school built of timber to the standard design of RG Suter and extended in 1884 and 1888-1889 during the period when the architects Robert and John Ferguson were preparing designs for the Department of Public Instruction.

[1] Suter schools are significant for the development of exposed framing in Queensland which became a building form of State importance.

The place remains substantially intact and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a small late nineteenth century rural school.

The play shed at Waterford is an important adjunct to the early school building and is typical of the designs produced in the 1890s.

The differing approaches to school design demonstrated in the early Waterford school building include: the different window layouts in the two rooms; the exposed roof timbers in the 1871 room compared with the ceiling lining in the 1888-1889 room with battened ceiling vent leading to a gable vent (now blocked up); the exposed framing inside the gable end of the second classroom (now enclosed with fibrous sheeting); and the differences in window pivoting arrangements.

The place has aesthetic significance for its scale and the visual qualities derived from the materials, the exposed framing and high ceilings, its grassed setting, and its prominent location at the front of the school grounds on one of the main roads through Waterford.