The building was subject to assessment in 2000 (IC 1) and a programme of historic building recording was undertaken in 2007, prior to conversion.<1><2> The building was also recorded by Colchester Archaeological Trust in 2011.<3>

Barrack school rooms were provided by the army from the 1840s onwards, to improve education standards of both the troops and their children. The NHLE list description cites the adult school as a rare early survival, though it dates it (erroneously) to 1863, when it actually post-dates the other Royal Artillery buildings. Lack of education was a concern in the army in the late 19th-century and perhaps the existing resources, the adults and infants schools built into the side wings of Stable blocks C and F (NMR MD95/1445 no.5), were inadequate, prompting the creation of a separate school building.

Despite its later date, the school is exactly the same stylistically to the other extant structures of the Royal Artillery Barracks. Its walls incorporate yellow brick banding, decorated eaves cornice and oculus windows already observed. However, its absence from the Royal Artillery plan of 1875 (fig.2) and ordnance Survey of 1876 shows that it is later in build. Angram, an archive drawing gives a possible date of 1884. Certainly, the school is built by 1897, when the second edition Ordnance Survey is published. By 1909 it is referred to as ‘offices’.

It retains much of its external character, though a modern extension to the rear elevation has not been sympathetic. There are several wall scars indicating the positions of former attached sheds along the boundary wall. This is a single storey brick structure built onto the east side of the western boundary wall with the Cavalry Barracks. The layout is broadly symmetrical with a single depth plan, an offcentre porch on the front (east elevation) and a toilet extension at the rear; the latter built in the early 20th-century (between the 1897 & 1924 OS maps). Internally, the classroom on the south side was divided into smaller offices or lecture rooms in the modern period. Theopposite classroom maintains its original proportions. It is unclear exactly when the building became redundant, but the 1998 date would seem likely.