Teachers can rarely work from home, except at this school

Nearly half of teachers at a government school in Melbourne’s outer west are working from home one day every fortnight under a unique arrangement intended to give educators more control of time and prevent burnout.

This semester, 81 of Melton Secondary College’s 190 staff have taken up the option to use the day to plan lessons, do marking and phone parents from home as part of a school-wide approach not offered at other large Victorian public schools.

The move comes after years of mounting workload pressure on Victorian teachers, who, on average, work an additional 12.4 hours unpaid each week, a 2024 survey of Australian Education Union members found.

While working from home has become a normal practice for many white-collar workers, the option has been much rarer for teachers, whose schedules are often rigid because of timetables, face-to-face teaching and supervision.

Melton Secondary’s principal, Kathryn Sobey, quietly formalised the fortnightly working-from-home arrangements for all staff last year, after considering for several years how to reduce on-campus hours for teachers.

“I was looking to find a way to give teachers an opportunity to do some different kinds of thinking without them having to do work on the weekends,” she said.

Teachers who have opted for the day have since reported it has allowed them to do deeper thinking, work more efficiently, and balance their own caring responsibilities.

Rob McIlroy, a senior school maths teacher, drives 40 minutes to the school each day to arrive by 8am. A day at home gives him time to drive his children to school and pick them up instead of his wife doing so.

“What really helps is having that time when you can sit down and do marking or lesson plans, or call parents about various things, and not just have half an eye on the office door for what might disrupt your flow,” McIlroy said.

“It means you have a day when you have things to do, but I can control the order in which I do them.”

Many schools have faced teacher shortages in specific areas such as maths. McIlroy said the flexibility was one of the main reasons he wanted to continue working at Melton Secondary.

“Part of the rationale when it was introduced was to avoid teachers who were burnt out saying, ‘I’m going to call in sick today.’”

Under the school’s two-week timetable, teachers must be on campus to instruct all their classes face to face. A student’s schedule is never compromised to accommodate for a teacher working from home.

If a full day is not available in the fortnight, the school can offer teachers two half days at home.