MEDOWIE Christian School's Darcy Howe didn't have to think twice about choosing Pit Lane as one of his year nine electives.
"I already deal with this kind of thing at home, I pull out engines with my dad at home - we love cars, motorbikes, anything with an engine," Darcy, 15, said.
"After school I'm going for a diesel mechanic apprenticeship. I like this stuff and not really much else!"
The school has introduced Pit Lane as one of seven new year nine and ten electives, which teachers have developed to reflect students' interests, passions and ambitions and give them increased agency over their learning, plus practical life skills.
The electives, which run for six months, also include Interior Design and Development and Be A Detective, which includes mock trials.
Pit Lane teacher Alan Vayne usually teaches Design and Technology and Industrial Technology, but built trains at Goninan & Co for six years.
"I saw a need there, I heard a lot of students saying they had no idea how to do things," Mr Vayne said.
"I thought 'This is something I can do' and I thought it would be relevant to the students and I thought they'd like to do it."
Mr Vayne has 13 students across years nine and ten, 10 boys and three girls.
"It's like anything, if you teach them when they're really young, they'll take it on board and they'll want to learn. It will start getting them thinking a bit more about it.
"It also creates a lot of interest for the ones really not interested in academic subjects, this is a real outlet for them."
He said he hoped it would empower students.
"They will have an idea of how it all works, they may not know exactly how it all works, but if a mechanic says they need a new part here they can say 'Hang on that doesn't sound right'.
"It will empower them more to make choices and not feel intimidated when they go to a place to get it serviced.
"I can guarantee everything I am teaching them here they will use."
Mr Vayne said the school had received a donation of a registered and running car to help it teach the subject, which covers what's involved with buying, registering, maintaining and the running costs of a car; organising insurance; general servicing; what to do after an accident; how to safely jack up cars; how to change tyres and brakes and how to identify parts of the engine.
"We eventually want to get into the body of a car as the course progresses," he said.
"We could possibly go deeper and pull engines out and modify engines and put them back in, do some bodywork repairs on the car, how to fix a dent, possibly spray painting - it depends on how many resources we have at the time and the facilities."
Year nine's Jaynee Soper, 14, said she enjoyed having more choice with electives and that Pit Lane practical skills and theory were "very useful".
