School With Only One Pupil

School can sometimes be boring, but at least you've got your mates to play football with at lunchtime.

That is, unless you're 7-year-old Zhang Siqi, as she is the only member of her school, in China's Fujian Province.

The school is in the village of Nanou - formerly a prosperous place, but now virtually deserted as people have moved out, into cities for work - and had been closed for 2009 and 2010 due to the total absence of students. However, it was reopened last year when Zhang Siqi was admitted. She has a missing spinal disc, requires extensive family care, and thus enrolled at her local school to minimise travelling.

She is taught by the school's only teacher, Zhang Wanjia, who follows the national curriculum, including solo PE activities and a weekly national flag raising day; Siqi sings the national anthem on her own.

Luckily, this will be her only year on her own, as four new children start next year - maybe they could play the neighbouring village at 5-a-side.

Images: Rex Features