The accounts of individual academies, and of organisations that sponsor a number of academies, reveal the salaries of top-paid members of staff.

Eastern Daily Press: Dick Palmer, Group CEO Transforming Education in Norfolk. Picture: Denise BradleyDick Palmer, Group CEO Transforming Education in Norfolk. Picture: Denise Bradley (Image: Archant 2013)

Of the nation-wide academy chains with a presence in Norfolk, Toby Salt, the chief executive of Ormiston Academies Trust, whose 37 schools include 10 in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, was paid £150,000-160,000.

The group's second highest paid member of staff was Nicole McCartney, executive principal of Ormiston Venture Academy in Gorleston, who was paid £140,000-150,000. Her 28pc pay rise was because she took on a trust-wide, board-level role on the senior management team and became a regional director.

Ian Cleland, chief executive the Academies Transformation Trust, whose 16 schools include eight in Norfolk and Suffolk was paid £160,000-£170,000.

Of the local academy trusts, Dame Rachel de Souza, chief executive of the Inspiration Trust, which has 10 schools in Norfolk and Suffolk, was paid £140,000-150,000.

The accounts of Norfolk Educational Services, the part of the Transforming Education in Norfolk (TEN) Group that employs chief executive Dick Palmer, have not been published yet.

However, a spokesman said that, including performance related pay, Mr Palmer was paid £176,000 in 2012-13, rising to £191,000 in 2013-14.

Jon Platten, principal of Norfolk's first academy, the Open Academy, was paid £120-125,000, including employer pension contributions, while David Brunton, then-principal of the county's second academy, City Academy Norwich, was paid £100,000-110,000.

Of primary school academies, none of the 20 members of staff at Arden Grove Infants were paid more than £60,000.

Although the accounts showed that six of the 47 members of staff at Cliff Park infant and junior schools were paid more than £60,000, this was for the 17-month period after they became academies.

The school said that, over 12 months, only two members of staff were in the £60-70,000 pay bracket, and none in any higher pay bands.