Guest Post: You Can Leave the Classroom Without Leaving Education

This is a blog post from our friend Heather McAvan, founder of Mrs Mactivity, former CMO of Twinkl, non-executive director of Kapow Primary, founder of DfE-validated Time for Phonics, (now acquired by Discovery Education), and more importantly, a former classroom teacher.

Life in the Classroom:

When I look back on my time as a teacher, it’s mostly with nostalgia. Very rarely do I remember the difficult parts first. Even though I left the classroom in 2013, every August I still start to feel restless, like I should be back in school setting up my classroom, checking class lists and making plans for September. It really does never leave you.

What I miss most is the children. Their ability to continually inspire me, make me laugh, question my life choices and come out with some of the weirdest, most wonderful statements - all within the space of an hour.

But eventually, for me, the challenges started to outweigh the positives.

The pressure of Ofsted always seemed to hang over everything. Policies changed constantly. Workload kept growing. You would spend the day teaching, then go home to planning, marking, data, emails and phone calls. There comes a point where your body is telling you to slow down, but the job simply doesn’t allow it.

For me personally, one of the hardest parts was the impact on my own family. After spending all day giving energy to other people’s children, I often had very little left for my own. I remember feeling exhausted trying to juggle everything and wondering how sustainable it really was long term.

Making the leap:

Leaving teaching was not an easy decision. Teaching becomes part of your identity. It is not “just a job”. Even when you know you are burnt out or unhappy, the idea of walking away can feel incredibly difficult, especially because you will be leaving behind a certain level of salary and benefits that can be hard to find elsewhere - in the short term certainly.

In 2013, I was lucky enough to join Twinkl as one of its earliest teacher hires, back when it was still a tiny company. That role completely changed the direction of my career and opened my eyes to the opportunities available outside the classroom for people with teaching experience.

Since then, I’ve gone on to build Mrs Mactivity, a primary teaching resources and schemes platform used by schools and teachers across the UK, launch a DfE-validated phonics scheme that was later acquired by Discovery Education, become part of the founding team at Kapow Primary and write a phonics book - not bad for a girl from Wakefield!

People often ask how I made the jump from classroom teacher into education businesses, but the truth is that many of the skills needed are the same ones teachers use every single day.

Teachers are organised, adaptable, resilient and able to communicate clearly. They manage competing priorities constantly, solve problems under pressure, build relationships quickly and learn new things fast. Those skills are hugely valuable outside the classroom too.

What this means for you:

What surprised me most after leaving teaching was how much businesses value people who genuinely understand schools and teachers. When you have worked in a classroom, you understand the realities of workload, curriculum pressures, behaviour challenges and what schools actually need from the products and services they buy. That experience is incredibly valuable to education businesses.

Over the last decade, I think there has been a real shift across the education sector. More companies now actively want former teachers involved in content creation, curriculum design, training, customer support, marketing, sales and product development because schools can quickly tell when something has been created by people who truly understand classroom life.

One thing I would say to any teacher considering a move into the education sector is this: don’t undersell yourself. Teachers often underestimate just how transferable their skills really are.

That said, I would never encourage someone to leave teaching impulsively after a difficult term. Sometimes a different school, leadership team or role can make all the difference. But if you have thought about it seriously for a long time and still feel the same, it is worth knowing there are other opportunities available within education.

Leaving the classroom does not have to mean leaving education behind altogether.

Many former teachers still want to help children, support schools and make a positive difference. They just do it in a different way.

Making that first move can feel overwhelming, especially when many teachers are unsure what roles their experience actually fits. Specialist education recruiters such as Connecting Education are helping bridge that gap by connecting former teachers with education businesses looking for people with genuine classroom experience and transferable skills.