The recent proposal by DMAT for huge cuts to staffing in our already under-staffed schools is of great public concern.

As a former SENDCO and wife of a former headteacher I know just how vital it is to the successful running of a school to have adequate levels of teaching assistant and administration staff. 

The severe cuts to this provision now being proposed by the Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust will have a devastating effect on the fourteen primaries and three secondaries involved.

Over 50% of these low paid members of staff are threatened with the loss of their livelihoods while members of the highly paid trust executives are to continue with theirs.

The top heavy structure of multi academy trusts has seen the erosion of funding within schools, particularly that of special needs, while the numbers and salaries of those with executive roles continues to increase, unquestioned and unjustified.

Angela Hughes

Vicarage Road, Okehampton