Mrs Stevenson was replaced by the school’s captains, Kerstyn Taylor and Lilliana Chick.

It was only for a day, but they described it as a “great experience”. While most student are ready for class at 9am, the acting principals were in the office at 8.30am to start their day.

The business of running a school barely took a breath teachers were asking for guidance and for decisions to be made. They hosted the Open Classroom for parents on Thursday afternoon.

“One of the biggest decisions has been finding out some students have been misbehaving in class, and we’ve had to find and decide on a consequence for them,” Lilliana said.

They weren’t quite thrown in the deep end, the school’s support staff including Barb Godbier were around to help.

“We appreciate the help of the staff members, it’s a great experience and a wonderful opportunity,” Kerstyn said.

The ‘Principal for a Day’ program has run at high schools around NSW, but it’s a first for EA Southee.

“It’s an opportunity for them to understand leadership of the school, they’re school leaders in their own right, but this is a different situation,” Mrs Stevenson said.

“Our director rang them up and a few other principals have called to see what’s happening at the school.

Mrs Stevenson said both Lilliana and Kersytn had big aspirations.

“We thought that we’d challenge them in a different way,” she said.