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Sydney School Offers Year 11 Girls Essential Car Maintenance Lessons

Sydney School Offers Year 11 Girls Essential Car Maintenance Lessons

When was the last time you changed a tyre?

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

A school for girls in Sydney has been offering the year 11 pupils the opportunity to learn how to look after a car properly as an essential skill.

To be fair, most of us wouldn't have the first clue how to change a tyre, or change the oil, or check the tyre pressure of our cars, but it's a really handy thing to know.

That counts for double in Australia, where the roads are long and the weather is hot. A flat tyre in between two cities could become a serious issue pretty quickly, unless you know how to get your hands dirty.

That's why the year 11 girls at Stella Maris College in Manly have been taking lessons from local 'car educators' Galmatic in order to learn how to look after their cars, and hopefully break down some tired old stereotyping in the process.

On their official website, Galmatic claim that they 'specialise in helping Australian women and teenagers feel comfortable behind the wheel through our hands-on car maintenance workshops and online courses'.

Facebook/Stella Maris College

Eleni Mitakos has been running the classes for 13 years, and offers all teenagers the chance to get stuck in and learn a little bit about how to perform the basic maintenance on cars that we're often not taught.

She told Daily Mail Australia: "We teach up to 100,000 teenagers a year in schools, across all parts of Sydney.

"The primary aim is for teenagers to feel comfortable behind the wheel. Ultimately they are driving very big vehicles which can be very expensive if not looked after properly.

"We can't stress enough to all our students you should never ignore a problem with your car, you need to address it for your own safety."

Facebook/Stella Maris College

Amy Smith, the assistant principal in charge of well-being at the college, said that everyone took something away from the session, and that it was a greatly beneficial exercise.

She said: "We had three groups of roughly 40 girls in what we call an incursion [event on school grounds].

"The feedback was very positive, the ladies from Galmatic were very patient and thorough in what they were explaining.

"All the teaching staff and our principal Elizabeth Carnegie felt a workshop like this would be beneficial for many reasons, mainly skills the girls need to learn before they leave school.

"It was also important to show the girls that they have the capabilities to handle situations themselves once they are on the road, rather than rely on someone else."

Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Stella Maris College

Topics: Australia, Cars