Tom Christison, the only enrolled student at Ropeley State School. Photo: Robert Shakespeare
Meet the most popular kid in school. Not that young Tom Christison has any competition.
As of last Wednesday, when the state-wide census of schools was undertaken on the eighth day of the school year, Tom was Ropeley State School's sole student.
Tom, 11, has not always been the only kid at the Lockyer Valley school – his mate, Ben, graduated to high school last year.
Not that it was of much concern to the Grade 6 student.
"It doesn't bother me," Tom said of his solitary student life.
Still, Tom did sometimes wish there were other children at the school, which had previously been a little more populated.
"I thought there'd be more people," he said.
"It was a bit (of a shock)."
Gone were the days of lunchtime footy or games of tag in the school yard.
"At lunchtimes, I play board games with my teacher (school principal Charmaine Wilson)," Tom said.
"I've been winning. There's Cluedo, Cluedo Junior, we've played Scrabble.
"I haven't been going outside much because of my sunburn."
Tom's father, local real estate agent Clint Christison, said it was a unique situation for his family.
"It's pretty hard for me – every afternoon, I've got to pick the whole school up and bring them home," he said.
"I think I should get paid for picking the school up."
Mr Christison said he had been concerned Tom would get lonely at the school once they discovered he would be the sole student.
"I said 'mate, should we take you to Gatton and take you to a bigger school so you've got friends to play with?' and he just said, 'no, I want to stay at Ropeley, Dad – that's my school and that's where I want to be now'," he said.
"I know he would love to see more students there so it doesn't get closed down."
That was a real concern to Mr Christison, who has campaigned locally with his wife, Belinda, for local families to send their children to Ropeley.
Otherwise, Mr Christison was worried the school, which was more than a century old, would no longer be viable and would be shut down.
"To describe Ropeley, to me, is as one of the last beautiful country schools this close to Brisbane," he said.
"You go out there and it's much like my place, right in the middle of a paddock."
Mr Christison said former students maintained their links with the school and often came back for Christmas functions.
"That's the sort of community we have – it's beautiful," he said.
Ropeley State School's enrolment has fluctuated in recent years.
According to the Queensland government's open data service, Ropeley had 10 students in 2009, 22 in 2010, 12 in 2011 and 2012 and seven in 2013.
Data for 2014 was not available, but Mrs Christison said there were two students enrolled at Ropeley last year.
"It's such a nice little place to be – lovely teachers, nice people and it's just a nice little place," she said.
Due to government protocols, Ms Wilson directed queries about her school to the Department of Education, Training and Employment.
A spokesman for DETE said the department closely monitored enrolments
"Ropeley State School currently has one student enrolled," he said.
"Enrolments in all schools are subject to fluctuation and routinely monitored."
The spokesman stressed there were no plans to close Ropeley State School.
According to DETE, other state schools that had just one student enrolled included Yaraka State School in 2008 data collections, Evesham State School in 2009, Stamford State School in 2012, Yowah State School in 2014 and Tennyson Special School in multiple years, including 2014.
Yaraka, Evesham and Stamford state schools have all since been closed.
Yowah remained open with three students enrolled and Tennyson Special School has several part-time enrolments.
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