At that point, most principals would have called a plumber, but those at the top of the tiny primary schools on Bendigo’s outskirts are sometimes called upon to go beyond the call of duty.

“The cleaner was here and the cleaner rang me and said ‘the septic’s backed up’, and I said 'well it just so happens I'm at the footy ground, I'll be over [soon]’,” Ms MacLean says.

“So there I am on my hands and knees trying to unblock the septic, and you know, that’s just a how it is.”

That was one of the worst Saturday’s Ms MacLean has had as head of the diminutive school, home to just 36 pupils from grade prep to grade 6, in a job she otherwise describes as both “pretty hectic” and “a joy”.

Like many principals at small rural primary schools, Ms MacLean is also a classroom teacher, and says the target work ratio of other principals – 70 per cent principal work, 30 per cent administration – is somewhat ambitious in rural areas.

“For teaching principals there’s an extra bit on top of that, so we’re kind of giving 150 per cent if you like, so it’s a busy day,” she says.

That day begins for Ms MacLean at 7.15am, in readiness for the first busload of pupils which arrives at 8.20am.

Then there’s all the usual classes to cover – in just three classrooms – including literacy, (with community volunteers helping listen to the children read), numeracy, music, science, humanities, health, physical education and Indonesian.

“It’s a very crowded curriculum,” Ms MacLean says.

“And while all that’s going on I'm also trying to do my principal work in my office.”

Some modest support in the form of Gonski funding has allowed the school to hire a teachers’ assistant for the first time in five years, making the workload slightly more manageable, but Ms McLean says her students always come first.

“I only have someone in the office one day a week and that’s so I can throw more money at the kids,” she says.

“Someone in the office two days a week would make my life a bit easier, but it’s about making sure the kids are looked after before I'm looked after.”

Ms MacLean was an assistant principal at Echuca College before accepting the role at Colbinabbin in 2011, and despite the hard work, she has never looked back.

“I love it, I would never go back,” she says.

“I'm a VCE literature teacher by trade and I do miss that, I miss the lit and the conversation’s that come from working with 17/18 year olds, but I would never go back to a principal role in a secondary school.”

The occasional yearning for the more intellectual discussions which come with VCE literature classes aside, Ms MacLean says it’s the kids who make her current position worthwhile.

“It’s a joy, you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning and come to a job like this unless you loved it,” she says.

“The kids are beautiful, they just make you laugh every day, some of the things that come out of their mouths ...”

Three quarters of an hour away down the Elmore-Raywood Road, Raywood Primary School principal Lynne Colbert says her 30 students benefit from the close relationship they have with their teachers at a smaller school.

“The teaching’s individualised, we don’t have huge class numbers so the students benefit and because we’re a low socio-economic area, they get plenty of one-on-one and probably individual attention,” she says.

Like Ms MacLean, Ms Colbert (who personally chauffeurs two children to school each day) says the hardest thing about being principal at a small school is “the fact that you’re everyone”; principal, teacher, handyman, driver, etc.

“Just general tasks, you've only got so few people to do everything – yard duty for example, it’s every day instead of sharing the load,” she says.

But both women agree the local community plays a big role in keeping things ticking over.

“We have working bees, so the community themselves help out with all those bits an pieces,” Ms Colbert says.

“A lot of it is the parents,” Ms MacLean agrees.

“I have a mowing roster that’s run by the parents so they look after that.

“It’s just a beautiful setting and I think the kids are very proud, we don’t have a rubbish problem or anything like that, the kids are very proud of their school.”

The five grade 6 students across the two schools –  three at Colbinabbin and two at Raywood – will move on to high school next year, a daunting prospect for students who are used to being the oldest in a school of dozens.

But Ms Colbert, who worked at Raywood for two decades before becoming principal in 2011, says the individual attention students get at a small school relieves any anxiety.

“I think because we’re one-on-one they’re able to cope with the situation because their school work’s up to date, I think that’s the key,” she says.

“Because of the individual attention, we’re able to bring them up to speed, whereas if you’ve got 30 children in a class sometimes it can be pretty difficult with one person.”