studio. On 4 November 2010, a gas explosion occurred in the caretaker's house on the premises. In the incident, the school's caretaker was airlifted to hospital with serious burns and the school evacuated. After the explosion the school raised money for the caretaker in his recovery by means of a Mufti Day where pupils came to school in their own clothes as opposed to the standard uniform. On 1 June 2011 Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, approved the school's application to become an Academy. Also in 2011, a food technology room was opened, following a successful planning application the previous year. A proposal was made to relocate a Synthetic Turf Pitch, which was at the time located at the Handy Cross leisure centre, to the JHGS site as part of a wider redevelopment of the leisure centre. Construction work was underway as of October 2013, and was in use by late January 2014. In 2013, an extension to the Sixth Form block incorporating a new library was built. In May 2019, a planning application was submitted for the construction of a new three storey classroom block on the front of the site. The project was initially announced in December 2018, when the school received around £3m of funding from the Department for Education's selective school expansion fund, which proved controversial. The new building, named the "Innovation Hub", was opened in October 2021 by football executives David Dein and Karren Brady. Headteachers There have only been six headteachers in the history of the school. The management of the original schools was vested in the trustees who in turn entrusted day-to-day control to art masters Henry Bayfield and Shaw Wilson and the Education Committee secretary WT Pycraft. The secretary was replaced by Hamilton Haddow and in 1913 by Arthur Gardham. W. J. Stamps took over from Bayfield in 1911 and he ultimately became Headmaster of the School of Art. The first headmaster (known in 1920 as Principal) of the Technical School was Arthur Gardham who joined in 1913 and won the MC with the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War. The former army captain is remembered by old boys as a determined character who liked to get his own way. As a result of his wartime injuries he always carried a walking stick. He would hold a daily roll call on the Fives Court when he inspected