The cottage will receive a new kitchen, new bathroom and more, "just making it a better place", project director Shalini Gandhi said.

"We are upgrading the carpets, we are repainting internal walls, adding some joinery as cabinets, because it's not sufficient for the way it's working at the moment."

Miss Gandhi said, however, the building's "form and structure has to be kept very similar".

"Externally, because it's a heritage building and we would like to retain its value, we would just paint and do touch-ups."

Vacation care has been relocated to the school grounds, in order to "allow the refurbishment of Block M to commence during the summer holidays", according to the NSW Department of Education's School Infrastructure website.

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Its latest works notification says out-of-school-hours care during term 1 will be based in the school's Sternbeck building.

A spokesperson said the department had decided in early 2019 to upgrade the out-of-school-hours facility.

"The cost is included in the major upgrade of Tamworth Public School and is expected to be completed by mid-2020," they said.

Miss Gandhi said pains had been taken to avoid any damage to the structure, built in 1877, while the school's new two-storey teaching block was being constructed metres away.

"There is enough of a gap, in addition to the scaffolding which we have just taken off two days ago, because we need to build another scaffolding around the heritage building," she said last week.

"So with the sets of two different scaffolding built next to each other, the chances of that happening are very minimised."