site. The new block includes nine classrooms and additional office space. In the 1990s the School built a new Sports Centre next to the Lower School Block. It also became a local Sports Centre for Hitchin and Hertfordshire, allowing for fitness, badminton, basketball and volleyball sessions among other sports. Conferences are also allowed in the Centre's theory classrooms as well as small individual rooms. In the late 1980s, the School's hockey/cricket pitch (but not the rugby pitch on the hill) on the top of the grounds (on Butts Close near Wilshere Dacre School, and which was unreliable, particularly for the hockey players) was converted into an all-weather pitch for the benefit of hockey, complete with floodlights. The pitch is used for clubs and groups to hire for events and training; one example is that of the local hockey club Blueharts (which was originally started as the Old Boys' club). The pitch is also used for P.E. lessons and the lunch time activities of cricket and football. When rugby union legend Joe Worsley left the School in the early 1990s, he left the token of his England rugby shirt, which he gained when he was capped against France in the Five Nations in early 1993. In 2003 construction started on the creation of a Sixth Form Centre (previously the Sixth Form had been forced to establish base in the former School Stables). It was completed in the summer of 2005 and took its first intake of Sixth Formers in September of that year. In July 2010 Mr. Keith Wadsworth retired as head teacher and Mr. Brown became head, starting in September 2010 and retired in July 2020. With Mr. Moane taking over, who started in September 2020. The school converted to academy status on 1 January 2013. From early 2018 to early 2019, a new Performing Arts Block was built and established, containing an auditorium with state of the art lighting and sound systems and several more classrooms for the performing arts. Which replaced the old classrooms in the main school. It also has state of the art music classrooms and practice rooms for a range of music lessons. All Geography, History and RE lessons take place in this block too. Traditions As with many former grammar schools, there are (and were) several traditions at Hitchin Boys' School that have been discontinued or continue to this day. Founders' Day, normally on