Shanneill Mancer has no one to sit next to in class or play with at lunchtime - she is the only pupil at Waikokowai School, west of Huntly.
The 97-year-old school had 13 students enrolled at the start of the term but only four turned up.
The roll has since dwindled to one.
The school - in the once prosperous Huntly mining region - faces closure if it fails to attract at least 10 more students by the end of the term.
Acting principal Brian Ivey was called in by the Ministry of Education at the beginning of the year and was preparing to wind up the school when Shanneill, 9, arrived from Hastings last week.
The school is technically open until Education Minister Trevor Mallard decides its future.
Until then, Shanneill is enjoying the attention and the extra responsibilities which come with being the only student.
"Mum says I will get a good start with the one-to-one," she said. She enjoys ringing the bell and "having the monkey bars to herself" but wishes she had other children to play with.
The school is set in 0.8ha of native bush on a hill overlooking Renown Mine, 12km west of Huntly.
It has three permanent classrooms, a tennis court, swimming pool and large playing fields.
The ministry this year granted the school about $25,000, not including Mr Ivey's salary, for 13 pupils.
Shanneill's grandmother, Sandra Hipkin - whose own children went to Waikokowai - has launched a campaign to save the school, which at one time had more than 100 students.
She is distributing flyers extolling Waikokowai's virtues around Huntly to persuade parents to send their children to a"great little country school".
There were 30 students at the start of last year.
Mr Ivey said he had been told the two teachers took a lot of sick leave, which was unsettling for students and parents took their children elsewhere.
In 1997, a commissioner was called in to run the school after the mass resignation of the board of trustees.
Derek Devoy, the Network Provision manager at the ministry in Hamilton, said the future of Waikokowai School lay with the minister.
"It is a reflection of declining rolls in rural areas."
- NZPA
The school bell rings ... for one
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