Tom Ingram (Owner of BIG TOM Driving School) has re-visited Bourne Grammar School to present to 175 Year 12 students about learning to drive and road safety in Lincolnshire.
“My thanks go to Mrs Shales from the school for inviting me once again to her school to provide this talk to Year 12’s. I get so much out of these visits, as it enables me to tap into the thoughts and feelings of this age group. It is recognised that the more engagement my profession can have on these young adults, the more chance we have developing successful outcomes for road safety.
We started with the traditional “boys v girls” driving around Elsea Park, Bourne using one of my driving videos from the BIG TOM Driving School YouTube channel. It involves no less than 22 volunteers! Once again, and this happens every year, the girls managed to out-perform the boys to score an impressive 174 over the boys 155. This exercise is a great demonstration of the necessary skills needed to manage risk when taking driving lessons – making sure the relationship between driving instructor and pupil has good, clear, timely communication at the heart of it.
Another student called Harry then role-played with me to much amusement of the audience, where it was shown how important it is for the relationship between driving instructor and pupil to be entirely centred to the needs of the pupil. Harry did a great job in role-playing and then gave his feedback to everyone how the actions of the driving instructor made him feel. It was a great opportunity to reflect on how taking responsibility for the learning process provides successful outcomes.
I introduced the students to the concept of the “Goals for Driver Education” matrix and put the driving test into context of that matrix. It is recognised that by exposing and developing these higher order cognitive skills with “critical thinking” new drivers can begin to appreciate how risk and self-evaluation are essential for post-driving test safe driving.
We then had a general Q&A session based around road safety on Lincolnshire roads in particular, discussing the risks they create.
It was another valuable experience for me, I look forward to the day when my driving school can offer these young adults an opportunity to drive on some under 17 driving experience days – a goal that I set myself for this year.”
BIG TOM Driving School provides 5 Day Intensive Driving Courses and PAYG driving lessons in Peterborough, Grantham, Lincoln, Sleaford, Stamford, Boston, Spalding and Bourne. Contact us HERE
