Students at Minakhik Waskahigan Elementary School in Pinehouse Lake in northern Saskatchewan were given the opportunity for free haircuts to welcome back students to school. Rosalena Smith, the principal at Minahik Waskahigan Elementary School, said it was also an opportunity for parents who couldn’t afford this service to bring their children into school for free haircuts.

Students of Minakhik Waskahigan Elementary School in Pinehouse Lake in northern Saskatchewan took advantage of free haircuts offered by the school to help struggling families who couldn’t afford this service. More than 20 students were given haircuts by certified staff who have training in haircutting. Photo by Rosalena Smith.

“The week before school started, we opened our school and offered all our families free haircuts,” said Smith. “We’re fortunate enough to have staff that certified for haircutting…and we also had community volunteers who also did haircuts for families who couldn’t afford to go to the city.”

Before parents usually signed a consent form but this year parents were encouraged to attend along with their children to meet the school staff and mingle with other parents as well.

“There are parents who don’t always come to our school who came that day,” she said. “It opened the doors for parents to come in.”

The elementary school has over 155 students that are enrolled this school year and Smith said almost 20 students took advantage of the free haircuts event. Following the event, the school organized a welcome back barbeque for families at the back of the school where they served burgers and hot dogs.

The school introduced a new program called the second step program, which will teach a lot of social skills for children. In addition, they are bringing back another program called Families and Schools Together (FAST), which is a parenting program that focuses on families who have difficult times including communication. The program will teach parents and children how to communicate effectively. Bullying is another concern for their school, so over the years the school worked on ways to eliminate it. This year they organized a Kindness/Friendship Walk on September 22 to raise awareness in their community.

“We try to be holistic in our education by offering not only academics but life skills,” she said.

Pinehouse Lake is 348 km north of Prince Albert.