25 Money-Making Side Hustles for Teachers
Are you a teacher looking for ways to make a little extra cash?
A side hustle is something you do in addition to your full-time or part-time job – or it may be something you do on the side of being a full-time parent.
It may not make you a big income – however many side hustles can snowball and grow into a full-time income like mine did for me!
Even if you work as a teacher five days a week, there are money-making side hustles you can do that fit around your work commitments and will boost your income.
These could be done in the evenings, at weekends or in the school holidays.
There are lots of options here, including very flexible work that will fit around your main job and family.
What are some good jobs for teachers?
As a teacher you have a range of extremely valuable skills – both in your specific subject or area that you teach, as well as the qualities you need to be a good teacher.
These can most definitely be used to make extra money from home.
However your successful side hustle doesn’t just have to be an extension of what you already do in your day job.
Your passions – including hobbies or skills that you don’t use in your day-to-day job – can be turn into a money-spinner.
My mum – who worked as a teacher her whole career – did many side hustles, with her favourites including exam invigilator, music teacher and examiner. She was able to make these fit around her school work, as well as her two kids!
Some examples of great side hustles for teachers to make extra money include:
- Tutoring – online and in person
- Examiner for GCSEs, SATs and A-levels etc
- Exam invigilator
- School holiday camp helper
- Blogging
- Selling lesson plans and resources
- Proofreading
- Selling stock photography
- Casual hospitality work
Side hustles for Teachers
These are the best ways for teachers to make extra cash.
Remember that you don’t have to have just the one side hustle – try a few to see what is the best fit.
1. Tutoring
There are many parents looking for experienced teachers to help get their kids ready for exams, help them catch up on work or make sure they are meeting their full potential.
The great thing about tutoring is that there are so many different ways of doing it.
You could work for an agency – there are only ones such as Tutorful – which will put you in touch with students.
The alternative is you advertise your services locally and get people to contact you direct.
You may just have one pupil who you work with weekly – or several pupils that you see regularly.
And tutoring doesn’t just have to be children, there are also adults that may need help with passing exams.
You can also tutor from home, visit students at their homes or do so online – which opens up the potential to lots more customers.
Potential earnings: £20 to £50 an hour
2. Become an examiner
Exam boards such as AQA produce and mark exams for schools.
They are often recruiting for qualified teachers who can work as examiners and mark the work.
There are vacancies in a huge variety of subjects.
Potential earnings: £500 to £1000 per job
3. Exam invigilator
An exam invigilator ensures that exams run smoothly for schools. Their duties include helping to set out the room in preparation for the assessment, ensuring rules are followed during the test and collecting exam papers once it has been completed.
You can find invigilator jobs advertised locally in websites such as Indeed.
You do not need any previous experience to be an exam invigilator, so it does not matter what subject or level you teach at.
Potential earnings: Around £10 an hour
4. Babysitting
Parents need childcare during the school holidays. Some may also need help at weekends if they work shifts – for example NHS workers and care staff.
The great thing about this is that you can search for a family or families that would be a good fit for your situation and the hours you want to work.
If you have children yourself, then some families may be happy for you to have both sets of kids while you are working.
You can advertise for babysitting roles locally on Facebook groups, or you may get to know families in your local area looking for help.
Potential earnings: £6 to £10 an hour
5. Summer school tutoring
A summer school – or school holiday revision camp – helps kids to get ready for exams or catches them up on work they’ve been doing in school.
I personally have fond memories of a revision camp I attended in the spring before my GCSE exams – it most definitely helped me to get good grades in my exams!
These type of camps or schools operate for GCSEs and A-levels and will be looking for teachers in particular subjects.
You can search for vacancies online at job sites, or find local revision camp companies and send them your CV asking if they have any work.
Potential earnings: £15 to £30 an hour
6. School holiday camp leader
Most towns and cities have several school holiday clubs operating in their area.
These provide weekday childcare for parents who need to work during the school break.
Parents like to know that their kids are getting more than just a safe place to be while they’re at work – they want to see activities are fun and engaging.
For this reason many clubs like to employ qualified teachers.
Being a school holiday club leader may involve a little forward planning with the team – so you can decide on timetables and plan activities. But then the hours will generally be roughly 8.30am to 5.30pm from Monday to Friday.
Potential earnings: £10 to £15 an hour
7. Blogging
Starting a blog is a low cost way of making extra cash. You can get a website online for less than £50 – including hosting and a domain name.
The money will not start rolling in on day one, however. I estimate it takes at least a year before you start to see a return from blogging.
This is because it takes time to build up an audience for your blog – whether you aim to get traffic from social media or from search engines.
But once you make money the return can be great. My blogs make me a full-time living!
There are blogs out there about pretty much every subject you can imagine. I recommend starting a blog on a topic you are very well versed in and can write about with authority.
As a teacher this opens up a range of great options, such as learning resources in the specific age group you teach.
I have a whole post about getting started with blogging.
Potential earnings: £100 a month to as much as £10,000+
8. Sell lesson plans and resources
As a teacher you may have lesson plans and resources that you have created to use in your own lessons.
But these could be of great value to other teachers as well!
There are various places you can sell educational resources. Etsy is a large marketplace that includes things like activity sheets for kids so you could sell them online there.
Alternatively TES has a huge online marketplace for selling resources online. https://www.tes.com/help/selling-resources-faq
Potential earnings: £50+ a month
9. Photography
There are a number of ways you can make money from selling photos or your photography skills.
You may take photos at people’s special events or offer shoots to mark people’s engagements or birth of their kids.
To do this you will first need to build up a portfolio of work to show to potential clients. You can do this by offering to take photos for friends for free.
There’s a huge market online for stock photographs, so this is another good option.
Stock photos are needed for a wide range of topics, from places and objects, to food and people.
Potential earnings: £150+ a month
10. Proofreading
As a teacher you’ve probably got a good grasp of grammar and spelling which makes you perfect for proofreading.
There is a huge range of types of proofreading jobs, from long books to short articles and reports.
You can find jobs online at sites such as Fiverr, Upwork and Indeed.
Potential earnings: £100+ a month
11. Music tuition
If you know how to play a musical instrument to a high standard and can teach that skill then being a private music teacher is a great side hustle.
There are so many kids and adults looking to pick up a fun hobby.
In terms of qualifications there are no rules set in stone about what you need to have. But you may need to teach kids how to pass exams in their musical instrument.
Teaching can take place at a school (this is what my daughter does) or after school. You can teach at your home (which may be necessary if you teach piano) or at the student’s home.
Potential earnings: £20 to £35 an hour
12. Education consultancy
My mum used her years of experience as a teacher to launch her own private work as an education consultant.
This role involves going into schools to help with a variety of issues such as curriculum, safeguarding or leadership.
This is a tricky role to do if you are working full-time at a school, as you’ll likely need to be on site during school hours to carry out consultancy work.
But if you are part-time then this could fit around your existing teaching job.
Potential earnings: £19,000 per annum and upwards
13. Vlogger/influencer
Teachers went viral in recent years when many children were having to study from home while schools were closed.
This led previously unknown individuals to grow huge audiences, whether on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or all three.
Teachers can use their unique set of skills and knowledge to show parents how to help kids at home. You can also create content aimed at kids as long as it is appropriate for their age group.
Educational content has so much potential – from teaching languages to demonstrating cool science experiments.
Once you have built an audience you can then monetise this by working with brands, who will pay you to promote their products to your audience, or through ads on YouTube (I make around £130 a month from my YouTube channel).
Potential earnings: £100+ a month
14. Virtual assistant
A virtual assistant role covers a huge range of potential tasks.
These include:
- Answering and sending emails and other correspondence
- Creating and posting to social media
- Organising schedules
- Booking meetings
The benefit of this sort of job for teachers is the “virtual” aspect. You can work from home, often carrying out your tasks in your own time.
The number of hours required to do this sort of role very much depends on the client.
Some will want a full-time virtual assistant, whereas others may only need a couple of hours support a month.
You can find clients on websites such as Fiverr. A computer is pretty essential to help you do this work, plus skills with certain word processing documents and social media can be useful too.
Potential earnings: £10 to £40 an hour
15. Freelance writing
This can be a great side hustle for English teachers, however freelance writing jobs come in all sorts of different niches.
Teachers with a science degree may be able to offer their writing services for scientific publications or roles that require some kind of expertise, for example.
There are so many specialist freelance writing jobs out there, and you can pick the number of jobs you say yes to to suit your hours.
Read more about becoming a freelance writer here.
Potential earnings: £150+ a month
16. Teaching English
As a teacher you’ll have a good grasp of the English language, so you could help those who want to learn!
You don’t have to know a second language in order to do this sort of walk. The English teaching service Cambly does not require teachers to have any qualifications. https://www.cambly.com/en/tutors?lang=en
You just need to chat to students online to help them with developing their English.
If you do have a second language however this can be a really good way of getting work, either for a family looking to help their kids learn English or by online tuition.
Potential earnings: £8 an hour and upwards
17. Translation
Languages teachers can use their skill to work as a translator or as a freelance interpreter.
This work may involve some travel, or could be done online at home depending on the nature of the job.
Potential earnings: £10 to £20 an hour
18. Referee or umpire
PE teachers may love to step up as referees or umpires in their favourite sports at the weekends and over the school break.
Getting involved with local clubs could also lead to work at school holiday sports camps, as many local clubs run week-long teaching and coaching camps for children.
The Referees Association has lots of tips for getting started and what training you need.
Potential earnings: £20 to £55 per game as a casual worker
19. Fitness coach
Whether you’re a PE teacher or have a passion for fitness as a hobby, you could fit fitness coaching around your school working hours.
You will need some kind of qualification in order to lead a class, so that you are aware of health and safety measures as well as best practice in whatever type of class you teach.
Fitness classes such as yoga, postnatal exercise classes, and spin take place throughout the day, whether they be at a gym, local community centre or in a local park.
You could choose your timetable to fit around your work.
In order to find work in your particular area that you would like to teach, reach out to local clubs and businesses that teach to ask if they have any vacancies for teachers.
Potential earnings: £10 to £20 an hour
20. Write your own eBook
Self-publishing has become so easy thanks to platforms such as Amazon.
Whether you would love to write a fiction novel, or could write an eBook with expertise on a particular topic, this can be a really rewarding way to make extra cash.
There are tips for writing an eBook here.
Potential earnings: £50+
21. Pet sitting and walking
If you love animals then this is a great side hustle that can fit around your working hours.
Dog walking could be done first thing in the morning before you start work or in evenings and weekends.
During the school holidays there is always a demand from pet owners for people to feed their pets and ensure they are OK.
You could advertise your services locally or by launching a website. The online dog walking and pet sitting site Tailster also connects pet carers with potential customers.
Potential earnings: £5 to £15 an hour
22. Sell your own online courses
If you have a particular skill or teach a particular subject then why not use your knowledge to create an online course to pass on your wisdom.
Online platforms such as Kajabi and Teachable will host your course (you will need to pay a fee) and then you just need to market it to potential students. This is where an online social media presence comes in really handy.
You can find out more about creating and selling online courses here.
Potential earnings: £50+ a month
23. Food delivery
Companies such as Uber Eats and Just Eat employ freelance drivers who sign up to deliver as many or as few orders as they can manage. https://couriers.just-eat.co.uk/application
I know people who manage to boost their income by hundreds of pounds a month by fitting in shifts delivering takeaways at weekends and in the evenings.
It’s much easier to find this type of work if you live near a big town or city, however most locations in the UK are served by some form of takeaway food business.
Potential earnings: Around £10 an hour
24. Reselling
This side hustle involves buying stuff that has the potential to be resold at a profit.
You may find items for resale at car boot sales, antique shops, in online auction sites such as eBay or on Facebook marketplace.
Reselling requires a good eye for a bargain and to be able to see the potential for either upcycling something or that it may spark demand.
When you resell items you may sell them on online auction sites – there are several that specialise in clothes such as Vinted – or on Facebook marketplace. Alternatively you may sell your items at car boot sales.
Potential earnings: £100+ a month
25. Children’s party entertainer/organiser
If you are a teacher you probably already know a thing or two about engaging with kids!
There’s a huge demand for entertainers, DJs, characters and organisers for children’s birthday parties.
You’ll need to consider the items you need to set up your own party events side hustle – for example if you’re going to do the music at parties then you’ll need the stereo kit plus maybe some lights too.
If you’re going to do parties dressed up as a favourite Disney character, for example Elsa, then you will need to have a good costume and be good at putting on the act and keeping it for a couple of hours!
You could advertise what you offer through local community centres, which are often popular with parents.
Potential earnings: £100+ per event
Other ways to make extra money
If you’re looking for more ideas to boost your income then check out my top survey sites, tips for making an extra £1,000 a month and money-making apps.
