12 April 2026 · 9 min read · By Harriet
If you've typed 'how to exit the classroom' into Google late at night, this is the guide I wish I'd found. I'm Harriet. I taught Year 1 for five years, exited the classroom on maternity leave and built a tutoring business with 100 children a week. Here's how teachers actually do it — not the theory, the real version.
What 'exit the classroom' really means
Most teachers don't want to stop teaching. They want to stop the environment — the behaviour incidents with no leadership backing, the data targets that have nothing to do with the children in front of them, the part-time contract worked at full-time hours. Exiting the classroom isn't quitting on the children. It's quitting on a system that's broken.
The teachers I work with mostly fall into two camps. The first group want out completely — a different industry, a remote job, a business of their own. The second group want to keep teaching but on their terms — tutoring, exam prep, online teaching, alternative provision. Both are valid. Knowing which one you are changes the plan entirely.
The wrong way to exit the classroom
The wrong way is to hand your notice in on a bad Wednesday with no plan. I've seen teachers do this. They burn out, panic, take a supply role to pay the bills and end up back in a classroom three months later feeling worse than when they left.
The right way is to build something on the side first. Prove it works. Get the numbers. Then walk away on your own terms, with students or clients already waiting for you on the other side. One feels terrifying. The other feels inevitable.
Step 1 — work out your real number
Before anything else, you need to know your minimum. Not your salary. Your minimum. The actual amount you need to bring in each month to keep your life running — mortgage or rent, bills, food, the things you genuinely cannot drop.
Most teachers massively overestimate this number because they confuse it with their current take-home. You don't need to replace your salary on day one. You need to cover your number. Everything above that is upside.
Step 2 — pick your route
Tutoring is the fastest route I've seen for a UK teacher. At £35 per child in a group of four, that's £140 an hour. Six group sessions a week roughly matches an M6 salary. The maths genuinely works.
But it's not the only route. Curriculum writing, exam marking, educational consultancy, online tutoring platforms, content creation, training, copywriting for schools — they all exist. Pick the one that uses what you've already got and that you can start before you leave.
Step 3 — build evidence before you exit
Get one paying client. Then five. Then enough to cover your number. Do this in your evenings, on your weekends, on your PPA. It is not glamorous. It is the difference between exiting cleanly and ending up back in supply.
When I exited, I had 60 children on my books before I told school I wasn't coming back. That's what made the conversation possible. The plan made the courage easy.
Step 4 — exit on your terms
Read your contract. Understand your notice periods (especially if you're returning from maternity — the rules are different). Pay back any maternity pay if you're contractually required to. Leave well. The teaching world is small and you might want a reference one day.
And then do not look back. The first six months out of the classroom feel strange. The Sunday-night dread takes a while to leave your nervous system. Give it time. It does leave.
Want the full step-by-step? See The Ultimate Teacher Exit Plan — the complete course for teachers leaving the classroom.
