Are You Desperate to Leave Teaching? Here Are Your 3 Real Options
And Why Only One Lets You Start Earning Immediately
I remember the Sunday evening feeling. That knot in my stomach as another school week loomed. The mountain of marking. The impossible workload. The creeping realisation that this wasn’t sustainable—not for my health, my family, or my sanity.
If you’re reading this, you probably know exactly what I mean.
Maybe you’ve already decided you need to leave teaching. Or maybe you’re still on the fence but increasingly certain that something has to change. Either way, you’re likely asking yourself: “What on earth do I do next?”
Let me share the three real options you have—and why one of them might be the answer you’ve been looking for.
Your 3 Options for Leaving Teaching
When you’re desperate to leave teaching, there are essentially three paths forward:
Option 1: Start a New Job From Scratch (Probably With a Pay Cut)
This is the path many teachers consider first. Apply for jobs outside education—maybe in HR, training, project management, or corporate roles.
The reality:
- You’ll likely take a significant pay cut, at least initially
- You’re starting from the bottom in a new field
- Your teaching skills may not translate as obviously as you’d hope
- You’ll need to learn an entirely new industry whilst proving yourself
- The job market for career-changers can be tough
I’ve watched friends go this route. Some found fulfilment, but many struggled with the financial hit and the feeling of starting over after years of experience.
Option 2: Invest in Retraining for a Different Career
Perhaps you’ve considered going back to university, doing a coding bootcamp, training as a therapist, or pursuing another professional qualification.
The reality:
- Significant upfront costs (often thousands of pounds)
- No income whilst retraining (or severely reduced income)
- Time investment of months or years
- No guarantee of success in the new field
- You’re betting on a future that’s still uncertain
This can work brilliantly for some people—but it requires substantial resources, time, and the ability to go without full income whilst you retrain.
Option 3: Monetise Your Existing Skillset Through Online Tutoring
This is the path I took, and it’s the one that changed everything.
The reality:
- You can start earning immediately—no retraining required
- You already have the core skills you need (you’re a qualified teacher!)
- You set your own rates, hours, and boundaries
- You can build it alongside your teaching job before you leave
- You maintain your income level (or exceed it) whilst gaining freedom
Here’s what makes this option so powerful: you don’t have to start from scratch or wait months to see income. You can get paid NOW.
But here’s where most teachers get it wrong…
The Problem With How Most Teachers Approach Tutoring
When teachers first leave the classroom, they typically dive straight into 1:1 tutoring. It makes sense, right? It’s familiar, you can start immediately, and there’s clear demand.
But here’s what happens:
You say yes to every request. You teach multiple subjects. You squeeze in sessions before school, after school, at weekends. Your diary fills up quickly.
And suddenly, you realise: you’ve just swapped one exhausting job for another.
You’re still:
- Working reactive hours around other people’s schedules
- Planning constantly (10-20 different lessons per week)
- Earning an hourly rate that caps your income
- Feeling drained after intense 1:1 sessions
- Worrying about inconsistent income during holidays
- Trading your time directly for money with no scalability
Sound familiar?
This is where most teachers get stuck. They leave teaching to escape the workload and stress, only to recreate it in their tutoring business.
But there’s another way.
What If You Could Teach Just 2 Hours a Week and Double Your Income?
I know that sounds too good to be true. I was sceptical too.
But this is exactly what happens when you shift your mindset from teacher to business owner and transition from 1:1 to group tuition.
Instead of trading hours for money with endless 1:1 sessions, you create one brilliant group programme and run it repeatedly with multiple students at once.
Here’s what this looks like in practice:
Instead of:
- Teaching 15 different 1:1 students per week
- Planning 15 different lessons
- Earning £35 per hour × 15 hours = £525/week
You create:
- One 8-week group programme
- With 3 groups of 6 students
- Meeting once per week for 90 minutes
- Charging £600 per student for the full programme
The maths:
- 18 students × £600 = £10,800 over 8 weeks
- That’s £1,350 per week
- For just 2-3 hours of actual teaching time
And here’s the best part: you plan the curriculum once and deliver it repeatedly. No reinventing the wheel each week.
The Two Models Compared: Which Life Do You Want?
Let me break down what these two approaches actually look like day-to-day:
1:1 Tutoring Model
Pros:
- Can say yes to almost anyone who asks
- Teach a variety of subjects if you enjoy that
- Quick to start—list yourself on a tutoring site and begin
- Familiar format from your teaching days
Cons:
- Constantly reactive to clients’ needs and schedules
- Intense, draining sessions (you’re “on” every minute)
- High workload—often planning 10-20 different lessons per week
- Inconsistent income due to holidays, client breaks, and rebookings
- Earning ceiling—you’re limited by your own time and energy
- Can feel like swapping one stressful job for another
- Difficult to take holidays without losing income
What this feels like: You’re busy. Your diary looks full. But you’re exhausted, your income fluctuates, and you still don’t have the freedom you left teaching to find.
2 Hour Tutor Model (Group Tuition)
Pros:
- Create the programme once, deliver it repeatedly
- Serve similar students with the same goals (builds expertise and efficiency)
- Steady, predictable monthly income
- Community feel leads to better student results
- Scalable with ease—no ceiling to your earnings as you’re no longer trading time for money
- Minimal ongoing lesson planning
- Significantly more free time for side projects, hobbies, family, and holidays
- Can take breaks between programme cohorts without financial stress
- Build a business asset, not just a job
Things to consider:
- You need to choose one thing you love to teach, to one niche audience
- You can’t say ‘yes’ to every tutoring opportunity that comes along
- Requires upfront thinking about programme design and structure
- Needs a mindset shift from teacher to business owner
What this feels like: You have space to breathe. Your income is predictable. You actually have time for life outside work. And you’re proud of what you’ve built.
Why Most Teachers Don’t Choose the Group Model (And Why You Should Anyway)
I’ll be honest: when I first heard about group tuition, I was sceptical.
I thought:
- “Parents only want 1:1”
- “I won’t be able to meet individual needs”
- “Students won’t get the same results”
- “It feels like I’m compromising quality just to earn more”
Every single one of these fears was wrong.
Here’s what I discovered:
Parents love group tuition when it’s structured well because their children get peer learning, accountability, and a learning community—things 1:1 can’t provide.
Students often get better results in groups because they learn from each other, stay more engaged, and feel part of something bigger. (I wrote an entire article about why group tuition can get better results than 1:1—it’s worth reading if you’re doubting this.)
You can absolutely meet individual needs through differentiated tasks, individual check-ins, and personalised feedback—you’re just doing it more efficiently.
It’s not about compromising quality. It’s about leveraging educational best practices (peer learning, structured curricula, community) to get better outcomes whilst building a sustainable business.
The only thing holding most teachers back from this model is fear of the unknown and attachment to how they’ve always done things.
But if you’re desperate to leave teaching because the traditional model isn’t working for you, why would you recreate that same model in your tutoring business?
What Your Life Could Actually Look Like
Let me paint you a picture of what becomes possible with the group tuition model:
Monday morning: You drop your kids at school. You have a coffee. You spend an hour responding to messages from students and parents, and reviewing homework submissions. Then you go for a walk.
Tuesday evening: You deliver your Year 6 SATs group from 4:30-6pm. Six engaged students, clear curriculum, collaborative activities. You finish energised, not drained.
Wednesday: Admin morning—invoicing (automated), planning next week’s session (30 minutes because you’ve already created the core curriculum), and marketing your next programme cohort.
Thursday evening: Your GCSE Maths group from 5-6:30pm. Great session, students supporting each other brilliantly.
Friday: Family day. No work. Actual weekend.
Your income: Two groups of 6 students, each paying £700 for an 8-week programme. That’s £8,400 every 8 weeks, for about 3 hours of teaching per week plus 3-4 hours of admin and planning.
That’s approximately £4,200 per month for around 15-18 hours of work per week.
Compare that to teaching full-time: similar (or better) income, a fraction of the hours, complete autonomy over your schedule.
Think about the extra ‘life’ you’d have time for:
- School pick-ups without rushing
- Exercise during the day
- Pursuing hobbies you’d forgotten you loved
- Being present with your family
- Taking holidays without guilt or financial stress
- Building something that’s actually yours
Exciting, isn’t it?
How to Actually Make This Transition
If you’re reading this thinking “this sounds amazing but I have no idea where to start,” here’s your roadmap:
Step 1: Start with the mindset shift
Read about moving from teacher mindset to business owner mindset. This is the foundation everything else builds on.
Step 2: Learn the practical steps
Work through how to transition from 1:1 to group tuition—the exact framework for designing and launching your first group programme.
Step 3: Design your programme
Choose your niche, create your curriculum, plan your structure. Download the free Group Tuition Guide to help you map this out.
Step 4: Test it whilst you’re still teaching
You don’t need to quit your job to start. Launch a small pilot group with 4-6 students. Test your model. Build confidence. See it work.
Step 5: Scale and transition
As your groups fill and your income becomes predictable, you can gradually reduce your teaching hours or leave entirely.
You don’t have to figure this out alone. Join our free workshops where we walk through this process together, or explore working with me directly through the 2 Hour Tutor Programme.
So There You Have It…
If 1:1 tutoring genuinely works for you and you enjoy it, that’s absolutely fine. Some tutors thrive in that model.
But if you’re desperate to leave teaching because you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and craving more freedom, don’t just swap one version of burnout for another.
The group tuition model offers something genuinely different:
- Freedom over your time
- Predictable income
- Scalability without sacrificing quality
- The ability to actually enjoy teaching again
- A life that works for you and your family
You’ve already got the hardest qualification—you’re a trained teacher. You already possess the skills you need.
The only question is: which model are you going to choose?
Option 1: Start from scratch in a new career
Option 2: Retrain and wait months or years to earn
Option 3: Build a sustainable tutoring business that gives you freedom now
I know which one changed my life.
What will you choose?
Ready to Explore This Further?
Download the free Group Tuition Guide
Get your free guide here with templates, pricing calculators, and step-by-step planning tools.
Join a free workshop
Come to our next live workshop where we discuss exactly how to build this model, with live Q&A for your specific situation.
Read the full journey
- The mindset shift you need to make
- How to transition from 1:1 to groups
- Why group tuition gets better results
Work with me directly
If you’re ready for hands-on support designing and launching your group tuition business, explore the 2 Hour Tutor Programme.
You don’t have to stay stuck in a job that’s draining you. And you don’t have to sacrifice your income or start from scratch.
There’s another way. And it starts now.
Ellie xx
