From Burnout to Balance: My Journey from Leaving Teaching to Building Inventors & Makers

For a long time, I didn’t talk much about my own journey out of the classroom. But the more teachers I speak to, the more I realise just how common my story of leaving teaching is.

As many people seem to do, I retrained as a teacher in my late twenties. I’d come from the corporate world, feeling disillusioned and craving a role with real purpose. I loved working with children and, coming from a family of primary teachers, it felt like the natural next step.

In the early days, I gave it everything. I didn’t have kids of my own yet, so I poured myself into the job. Long days in the classroom, evenings spent planning and preparing resources. I was driven, enthusiastic, and energised by my time with the children.

But as the years went by—and life changed—so did my capacity. Returning to school after maternity leave, I quickly realised that the same 12-hour days weren’t going to work anymore. I was tired, stretched, and constantly feeling like I was letting someone down—at work or at home.

One start-of-term INSET day particularly stands out. My job share and I had spent the holidays planning half a term’s maths lessons. Then we arrived to discover we’d be starting a brand-new scheme of work—immediately. All our work? Scrapped.

Displays still needed putting up, data needed analysing, and now all the planning had to be redone. I just got on with it. Because that’s what teachers do.

But something shifted that day.

Not in a dramatic way. Just a quiet, persistent thought:

“You can’t keep doing this.”

It wasn't that I didn’t care—the problem was that I did care. But I felt undervalued, micromanaged, and exhausted.

And I had no idea what else I could do.

I still wanted to work with children. Still wanted to make a difference in education. Just… not like that.

So I made a decision to find a new way to teach—one that worked for me and it was that decision that changed everything.

It was that decision that led to the creation of Inventors & Makers, and it’s what drives me today as I support other teachers to find the freedom and joy they once felt in the classroom.

I didn’t start Inventors & Makers with a business background. I knew nothing about sales, marketing, or finances. But like most teachers, I learn fast. I figured it out.

And within three years, I’d grown the business to the point where I had another teacher delivering workshops and clubs four days a week, we’d won national awards, and schools were rebooking us year after year.

Eventually, the demand was more than we could manage, and that’s when franchising became the natural next step. We realised we could help more children and more teachers by growing the business through others who shared our values.

Now, our franchisees don’t have to start from scratch like I did. We’ve tested and refined everything—from workshops and lesson plans to marketing and admin systems. You get all the challenge and reward of running your own business, with none of the lonely guesswork.

And most importantly, you get to teach on your own terms.

To spend your days inspiring young minds, without the endless meetings, marking, or spreadsheets.

To rediscover your love of teaching, while building a business that works for your life.

If you’re reading this with that low-level anxiety that never really goes away—or that creeping Sunday-night dread—I want you to know: you’re not alone.

You’re not giving up. You’re choosing something better.

Curious about what franchising could look like for you? You can find out more in our franchising brochure.

It could be your first step towards something completely different—and completely worth it.

Get the Franchising Brochure