Melissa Dunn

The Complete Education Solution (TCES) is a family-owned social enterprise providing independent special education through award-winning schools and services. We work with Local Authorities across London and throughout England. TCES East London, TCES North West London and Create Learning Primary are our three day schools. TCES Create in the Community is our specialist service for complex, high needs children and young people. The most recent addition to our family of schools is TCES National Online School, currently the only online special school in the country to be independently quality assured by the Department for Education. We work with children and young adults aged 5 to 25 who unable to access education via a physical bricks and mortar setting owing to neurodiversity, emotionally based school avoidance, special needs and/or lack of appropriate school place to meet their needs. Across TCES pupils present with significant complexity and co-morbidity linked to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) including childhood trauma or secondary trauma linked to family marginalisation, loss of homes or relationships or pupil bullying and multiple exclusions. On joining us, pupils will have already — on average — experienced three permanent exclusions, been out of full-time education for up to 15 months. Independent research conducted by Goldsmith’s University found that between three and five years after leaving a TCES school or service, 90% of our students are in education, training or employment, going on to study at college and university and pursuing careers in social care, retail and theatre amongst others. Our authentic commitment to inclusion has enabled us to work with over 3,500 children and young people, and in our 25 years we have never permanently excluded a single child — and we do not fixed term exclude either.