John Cabot Academy formerly John Cabot CTC, was one of 15 City Technology Colleges that first opened for students in the 1993/1994 academic year. It has since converted to Academy status on 1 September 2007. It is located east of Bristol, England in the Kingswood area and is named after John Cabot, an explorer who set out from Bristol and reached the Americas in 1497. The academy has approximately 1,050 students, about 220 of whom are in the sixth form. The Principal is Adam Williams. The academy is part of an Academy Federation led by David Carter, the previous Principal. The federation runs lessons throughout the three schools, with sixth formers moving between schools for some of their lessons. In previous years, the academy has operated the Cabot Competency Curriculum, which was developed at the academy. It focused on 'learning to learn', but dropped it due to its impracticality and provided a basic, stripped down version, called PLTS. The academy is divided into four communities; Saturn, Mercury, Neptune & Jupiter. From the start of the academic year 2009/10 the term system has been changed to be the same as other schools in England to make the Diplomas easier to coordinate.