Yellowknife (Jan 26/05) - A tough situation for school staff has been turned into a learning opportunity for students at Tusarvik school in Repulse Bay.

The 2004/2005 school year has been a challenging time for the school, with a number of teachers forced to take extended medical leave.

The shortage of staff has prompted the remaining teachers to pitch in a little extra at the school.

And the situation has also led to school principal Leonie Aissaoui becoming a little more creative with some of the courses being taught.

"I hired somebody to come in and teach the Grade 6 female students a little bit about crocheting," says Aissaoui.

"So now, the students are all crocheting their own hats as part of the school's cultural program.

"Everybody in town is doing this right now, so the students feel good about learning the craft."

Aissaoui says with the Grade 7 and up classes being heavily involved with a cultural program, the crocheting class has allowed the female Grade 6 students to feel more a part of the extended curriculum.

"I really felt the Grade 6 students should be learning something distinct, too, and that they'd find crocheting an interesting skill to be taught.

"The students have really taken to the course and the added upside is that it's a good way to fill out the position the teacher is absent from."

With the female students busy crocheting their hats, the male Grade 6 students were introduced to the wonderful world of baking.

The students started off by making muffins before moving on to bannock.

Aissaoui says the muffins and bannock are passed around to the other students as part of the school's snack program.

"It's really quite something to see how proud the boys are to be baking.

"They put on their aprons, which are really too long for them, and then, even though there's water in the kitchen, they keep going out into the hallway to get a drink of water.

"They keep going out in the hall for their drinks hoping that someone will see them in their aprons.

"We have to keep shooing them back into the kitchen."