jcoss opened a year at a time, with up to 180 students joining year 7 each year until the school was fully populated with around 1360 students. its sixth form opened in 2012. the school, whose headteacher is patrick moriarty, has specialist status in science. it cost £50 million to build, £36 million of which was funded by the government, and is the most expensive state-funded secondary school to be built in the uk. gerald ronson, a business tycoon and philanthropist, helped in the fundraising drive and is the president of the jcoss trust. the pears special resource provision (psrp) at the school has places for up to 49 children (seven places each year) with autistic spectrum disorders. norwood, a jewish charity, is providing some of the services at the psrp.