About me

I became a fully qualified driving instructor in September 2016 after previously being a secondary school English teacher for 22 years.

In 2015 my daughter began driving lessons at the age of 17. My husband and I bought her a block booking of 15 lessons with an instructor and naively presumed that all instructors would offer the same kind of service. We could not have been more wrong!

To begin with, the instructor was often late when picking her up for her lesson, though still ended at the original time, meaning she never received the full lesson time that had been paid for. Then, the instructor could only offer her a lesson once a fortnight and sometimes once every three weeks; obviously this meant she would forget things she had learned in the previous lesson and felt a real lack of progress. In a nutshell, the lessons were a complete waste of money and as such, she gave up on the idea of driving.

A few months later, we decided that a week’s intensive course with a test at the end may be the answer. In order to prepare her for this, I decided to take her out for a few lessons to get her prepared. I admit, I was a little wary. Would I stay calm? Would we want to kill each other by the end of the lesson? Would I put her off for life?

Clearly, none of these things happened. In fact, I loved it and when she said she’d learned more in 2 hours with me than she had in 15 hours with the actual instructor, it sowed the seed with regards to me making a career change. I passed my final driving instructor exam 9 months later and immediately set up my own driving school and have never looked back.

I absolutely love my job; meeting new people, discovering the type of learner they are and finding the best methods of helping them to become safe, confident drivers who are able to deal with all aspects of the roads, in an as efficient and enjoyable manner as possible. No two learners are the same and what works for one, will not work for another, so I make it my mission to quickly discover what methods work best for each student and tailor lessons to their individual needs.

I don’t claim to offer the cheapest lessons in the local area but I do provide excellent value for money and at the end of the day, you get what you pay for! The national average for the number of lessons needed is 40 hours with an instructor plus 20 additional hours of private practice. I have actually had one student with no prior experience, who had 21 hours with me, no additional hours of private practice, and he passed his test first time with only 1 minor driving fault. This may be exceptional but it is certainly achievable with the right instruction and guidance.

Reviews

Official DVSA Driving Test Guide 2019