The Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust (DMAT) is set to open Okehampton’s new school for children with special educational needs this September.

The Promise School, which will cater for children aged four to 16 with social, emotional and mental health issues, will serve the West Devon and South Hams region in an attempt to help to alleviate the current shortage of SEN (special educational needs) schools across Devon.

In a letter to parents and carers, the trust said: ‘The trust has grown again and now welcomes The Promise School into our family which will open in September in temporary accommodation across two sites whilst we wait for their purpose-built site to be completed, which is on track for Easter 2023.’

The school building is currently under construction so Promise School pupils will be taught at St James Primary School and Okehampton College in classrooms that the schools have specially set aside for them.

It is hoped that the Promise School building will be finished in time for the start of the 2023/24 academic year.

The school is part of a £22 million programme by Devon County Council to provide 300 extra places for children with special educational needs across the county in addition to 300 places which have been provided in new SEN schools in Tiverton and Newton Abbot and by expanding schools in Exeter and North Devon.

Due to the shortage of SEN schools in the area, children in the wider Okehampton area that are in need of such provisions must currently travel long distances to Exeter or North Devon to receive the appropriate support.