Flexible school models key to teacher wellbeing and student success
Flexible work arrangements for teachers – from split shifts and job-sharing to hybrid and online delivery – could be the key to easing teacher burnout and improving outcomes for students, according to CQUniversity’s education expert Professor Ken Purnell.
Professor Purnell said Australia’s traditional school day, typically 8:30 am to 3:15 pm, was designed for another era and no longer reflects the realities of modern families, workforce demands, or student learning needs.
“Our education system was built around industrial-age routines, not human ones,” Professor Purnell explained. “It’s time to reimagine schooling so that it works with people’s rhythms – not against them.”
He said flexible models already exist across Queensland and Australia, but they remain the exception rather than the rule.
“We know from both research and practice that flexibility benefits everyone. Teachers gain better work-life balance, students perform more effectively, and schools operate more efficiently,” he said.
“The evidence is clear – what’s missing is widespread adoption.”
Research by CQUniversity alumni, including Dr Suzanne Innes and Dr Jan Drewitt, supports the benefits of flexible models such as split-shift timetables and online teaching.
Queensland pilot programs and Sydney’s staggered-start trials have also demonstrated reduced congestion, improved teacher wellbeing, and smoother family routines.
“Job-sharing and reduced administrative loads allow skilled teachers to stay in the profession during different life stages,” Professor Purnell said.
“It’s not about doing less – it’s about working smarter and sustaining great teaching.”
He said flexible approaches also made economic sense by optimising classroom use and reducing the need for new infrastructure.
“When classrooms and technology are used more effectively, everyone wins – teachers, students, and the community,” he said.
However, despite mounting evidence, Professor Purnell said progress towards widespread flexibility has been slow.
“Cultural inertia, outdated policies and fears about equity are holding schools back,” he said.
“But we’ve seen through the pandemic and numerous trials that flexibility, when designed well, strengthens education – it doesn’t weaken it.”
“We already know what works,” Professor Purnell said. “What’s needed now is the courage and leadership to make flexibility a standard feature of Australian schooling.”
