Tom from BIG TOM has been an instructor since 2009. He has a large amount of experience providing driving training in various towns and cities in the region of East Anglia, including:
Boston, Peterborough, Melton Mowbray, Grantham, Spalding, Stamford, Sleaford, and Lincoln.
As a result of this experience of providing driving training in a variety of locations, it means that there is complete flexibility for customers as to where they train and go to test. Tom has a bank of knowledge of test routes from personally observed driving tests over the years.
He has helped pupils with a range of differing needs, some might have been previously diagnosed, but often, that is not the case. In general terms, the issue(s) of “learning difficulties” is minor when compared to the issues of “attitudes to learning”. This is probably why the subject of attitude is covered very early on in official DVSA books on the subject of learning to drive – it affects the quality of learning and that can affect road safety.
When a pupil struggles with their attitude to learning, it may not necessarily be a conscious decision that they make; it may be the case that the person has little experience of learning a practical skill in a 1:1 training environment. Overestimating one’s ability is a common obstacle to learning, as is underestimating the effort needed to learn to drive – both are subject to individual perception and differ between individuals.
Tom has a coaching qualification which means he does not necessarily have to rely on “instructor-led” teaching techniques should a pupil favour a more pupil-centred approach. His experience in training means that he is able to adapt to the preferences of the pupil. He also has an open mind as to how practice is done in terms of the order, and locations used. This means that safety and enjoyment levels are maximised at all times.
It is true that some pupils will prefer an instructor of a certain gender, just like some will prefer manual over automatics. And in a similar way, some pupils will like to practice more often/regularly than others, or for longer periods in the training session.
As you can see from the above, there are a mixture of aspects that will affect learning outcomes, and the consequence of this is that the length of time it takes to learn varies and therefore the costs involved in training.
One of the key differences of Tom’s driving school is that he has a bank of genuine, authentic customer reviews going back to 2009 for prospective pupils to view. These can be seen on google, the driving school website and more recently (last few years) on Trustpilot. When considering using a driving instructor, it is strongly recommended that you ask to review previous authentic customer reviews from a credible platform such as Trustpilot. Clearly, when a service provider can not demonstrate a historical bank of real customer reviews, then it raises a question mark over the amount of experience they have, and also, why they choose to not allow customers to place reviews on their business (which similarly to the above point of pupil’s attitudes to learning, raises a question regarding their attitude to teaching).
This blog is aimed at helping prospective learner drivers to become aware of the complexities of learning to drive and explores how some of the factors relate to the pupil and others to the driving instructor.
