Her passion for working in alternative provision was borne from the literature she studied and used in action research and informal studies both in her classroom and school wide in her previous school. Latterly she has spent the last six years completing an Education Research PhD on Working Memory (and is currently awaiting the viva voce). In her first three years of teaching, she also completed a Master's Degree in Special Educational Needs. She then spent 21 years teaching in Somerset and Devon as a Science Teacher and Middle Leader in Mainstream School. She spent 4 years working in the world of recruitment, personnel and sales before completing a Secondary Science PGCE at The University of Exeter in 2001. Melissa completed a degree in Microbiology at The University of Reading in 1997. When not at work, Nathan enjoys being in the outdoors, ideally in or on the water. Prior to starting with Wave, Nathan worked with excluded students in the Torbay area, developing his interest in use of the outdoor environment as a resource to support young people with social and emotional needs. In more recent years Nathan has worked with the young persons' charity, Young Devon, managing a busy drop-in centre and an accommodation project supporting young people leaving the care system. This lead Nathan to a career change where he worked for the Youth Offending Service, championing the importance of education for young people at risk of offending. It was during this time that he became increasingly interested in the reasons behind the poor outcomes for students with additional needs. Having graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in Land Resources, Nathan undertook a PGCE at Leicester University and went on to teach geography in a number of mainstream schools. The Shoreline Academy (Barnstaple & Bideford).

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