UPDATE: |I quit my teaching job and get paid twice as much for half the hours News

Harriet Bermingham was fed up with working such long hours for little reward

For Harriet Bermingham teaching is in the blood.

The third generation of her family to become a primary school teacher, it was all she’d ever wanted to do. But after just a few years in the role, she soon realised it was far from the job she’d expected.

Working long hours and feeling unable to support children properly in such big classes, she decided to look for an alternative to the traditional classroom setting.

After initially setting up a phonics playgroup, she began doing some private tutoring alongside her teaching job.

But it was only after having her son Teddy at the end of 2022 that she decided to make the jump, leaving her role at Flixton Primary School to offer private tutoring from her home in Worsley, Salford.

Two years on and with seven years’ tutoring experience under her belt, the 31-year-old owner of Bold Beginnings Tutoring says she’s ‘never looked back’.

With 85 children on the books, attending in groups of four or five at a time, she feels able to properly teach again and is earning twice what she was at the school for half the amount of hours.

“There just isn’t enough funding for schools and there’s little job satisfaction,” said Harriet. “With the amount of children in each class – often 30 kids to one teacher, plus maybe a teaching assistant if you’re lucky – you just can’t spend that one-to-one time with the children without distractions.

“Now I can do really focused activities with them and they make so much progress.”

As a full-time teacher, Harriet would be in school for 7am, leaving at 4pm and spending a lot of her spare time lesson planning.

“With the planning on top I’d easily be working 70 to 80 hours a week for a salary of around £35,000,” she said. “I knew I couldn’t go back to that after having Ted. I now work four hours a day, four days a week, so it’s helped me massively.

“My mental health is better and I can put so much more into teaching as I have the energy to do it, whereas before I was constantly burnt out.

“There’s too much pressure in schools. It’s become less about teaching and more about ticking boxes, admin and behaviour management.”

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Harriet now has a fully converted garden room with all her resources and seats for up to five pupils at a time.

It means she can work without any distractions while her son is either in nursery, or inside the house with his dad, Harriet’s fiance Tom Shaw, who runs his own MCR Injury Clinic, in Moorside Road, Swinton.

She’s seen a big increase in the number of parents seeking tutoring since Covid and says many aren’t aware they can use the government’s childcare vouchers to help pay towards private tutoring, providing it’s with someone who is Ofsted registered.

“I find it’s something people just don’t know about,” she said. “It’s classed the same as tax-free childcare so it means anyone earning under £100k a year can use the vouchers to get 20% off.

“It’s a huge help for many children and there’s a definite increase in the number of kids needing specialist support. The work needs differentiating more and that’s harder to do in a class with 30 children.

“Also mental health has been a big issue since Covid. A lot of children were anxious about going back to that classroom environment and there’s been a lot of separation anxiety from children in Year 4 as they were the ones at home during the pandemic and that’s all they ever knew. I’ve been able to support kids with that side of things too.”

After finding her own way out of teaching, Harriet is now helping other teachers to do the same.

She’s launched an online course titled The Ultimate Teacher Exit Plan, to offer guidance and support to those wanting to make the same step.

“When you’re in teaching, you often can’t see a way out,” she said. “But now I’m on the outside looking in, I see how different it is and it’s honestly life-changing.

“It’s daunting for people to leave that regular pay and stable job, but the course is all about helping them get set up as a tutor alongside their teaching job – like I did – before going it alone.

“It’s a self-paced course so there is no pressure, as teachers have little spare time. And it’s a build up to going part time before eventually leaving, so there’s that safety net for families.”

The former Bolton School pupil says she now delights in seeing the progress made by her pupils, including Sophia Pulo who just this week celebrated getting a place at the school herself.

“I’m so passionate about teaching and I absolutely love the children to bits,” said Harriet. “Tutoring allows me to do it properly and give each child the attention they deserve.”