Learning To Drive

Learning with LookAfterLearners

Choosing a driving instructor is an important task, and there are several things you need to consider including whether you want a male or female driving instructor, and whether you want to learn to drive in an automatic or a manual.

All driving Instructors on this site are:

Hello my name is Rick Burlingham, i co-own LookAfterLearners with Michelle Gibbs, i would like to talk you through what it's like to learn to drive a car safely stage by stage with us.

On your first lesson, if you are a total beginner, we will teach you the cockpit drill and controls. This consists of how to make yourself comfortable in the driving seat. Can you imagine feeling uncomfortable before you even start?

Once you feel OK, we will teach you what the feet controls do, the accelerator, the brake and the clutch, we will use visual aids to help of course. Once you have an understanding of this we move on to teach the hand controls, how to operate the hand-brake, the steering wheel, the indicators etc. Again once you are comfortable with this we will teach you to move and stop the car before your first lesson finishes, and how to use those all important mirrors.

As time moves on, and please remember that we teach you at your own pace, we move on to Hill Starts, up and down of course, believe it or not a hill start going up is completely different a hill start going down.

Next will be how to hold your correct road positioning, what road markings and signs mean, how to deal with traffic lights and pedestrian crossings.

We then teach you at what speed to drive at, but without hesitation on junctions and roundabouts, hand-outs can be given out so that you can make notes after each lesson to keep your mind active between leaving the car and getting back in again. Junctions and roundabouts are separate lessons within themselves.

We teach you what distance you need to keep away from parked cars, and why. Do you know what a safety bubble is ?

On today's busy roads you will need to learn how to anticipate other road users, and how to be aware of what's happening ahead and behind you.

The next stage could be faster driving on dual carriageways, these roads have a speed limit of 70 mph, you would not want to pass your test and not know how to drive fast, that could be dangerous.

During your lessons we will also teach you how to reverse, how to turn the car around, and how to park the car safely, also how to stop the car in case of an emergency.

Our number one priority is to teach you to drive safely and ensure you are fully equipped and ready to take your practical test.
During the test you will be asked to complete a 10 minute session of independent driving, this has to be a good thing because once your test is passed you will have to do this on your own, so why not learn how to do this before you pass.

We will keep you informed on a regular basis of your progress, and when the time is right we will give you a mock driving test, we might even bring in one of our other instructors to help out. By using a different instructor on a mock test gets you used to sitting next to someone new. We will even come with you on your mock test, and real test, if you want us to. ( I know i prefer to go with my pupils, it makes them relax a little knowing that i am in the car with them )

Once you have passed the test, and we hope it will be first time of course, it might be advisable to take the pass plus course. This will consist of 6 more hours in car training, we will spend lots of time on motorways teaching you how to deal with faster traffic over a longer period of time. For example staying on the motorway for two hours or more which in today's world is a normal thing. After the 6 hours is up you will not have to take another test but you will receive a certificate from the DSA and it could also result in cheaper insurance.