‘Looks fantastic’ - South Shields school unveils industry-standard hair and beauty salon
South Shields school creates its very own salon to help give hair and beauty students a skills boost.
A South Shields school has created an industry-standard salon to help prepare students for roles in the hair and beauty industry.
Students at Epinay School, on Nevinson Avenue, will have access to the salon from September when they will take part in both practical and academic work to gain a qualification.
Industry-standard salon
Chris Rue, headteacher at Epinay, has revealed that the pupils are already looking forward to using the space and gave an insight into how it will be used to prepare them for a role in the hair and beauty industry.
He said: “We’re really proud and it looks fantastic.
“The people that we’ve shown the space to have said that it is a really high-end facility and we’ve deliberately gone out to do that because our kids should have the best.
“The salon will give us booths for hair washing, stations for hairstyling, nail stations and also a barbering unit.
“The students using the space will be dressed in a uniform and they will do an academic side to the qualification.
“So they will do a day of practical work and then that will be followed by a half-day of academic work.
“The children have seen the space and they are eager to get in, especially the young people who are doing hairdressing off-site this year.
“We’ve already got a hairstylist who will be coming in to work with the school and a hair and beauty company is going to sponsor the salon by donating products and hosting training events here.”
Preparing young people for adulthood
Chris also explained that the success of the Epinay Café has led to the school looking at what other industries they can help to support students in.
He added: “We try and prepare our young people for adulthood and we do that by looking at the data of what type of industries our kids go into after school.
“More of our young people are going into public facing industries like catering, supermarkets, charity shops and salons.
“We’ve had our community café running for a number of years now and the salon seemed like the next industry where we can really give the kids the skills and knowledge that they need.”