Private Practice

Learning to drive with Parents.

Parents, partners or friends who are able to provide the opportunity for private practice are a massive help, both to us as instructors and for those learning to drive.

Asking Parents or partners who are willing and able to provide you with the opportunity for you to practice privately is a great help to both us as the instructors and the person learning to drive and should be encouraged.
The closer that parents of partners can copy what we as professional instructors do the more likely that a successful result will be achieved at the test.

But First Things First:

Before venturing out with a learner driver, you have to ensure that you satisfy the minimum licence requirements. You must be over the age of 21 and have held a full driving licence (for the type of vehicle that you are using) for a minimum of three years.

Importantly you must keep in mind that you are not just a passenger being taken for a ride, but a supervisor with a legal responsibility to your driver and other road users.

Route Planning:

Route planning is VITAL in the early stages of learning and if these are poorly planned then it will lead to the learner making mistakes and becoming frustrated.

This unfortunately often leads to arguments with the person you are teaching and possibly other drivers.

Inappropriate routes will often lead to lack of motivation and will cause learning to be slow.

One step at a time:

If you find that your learner is stalling quite a lot when emerging from junctions or in traffic, the likely cause is insufficient practice in quieter areas with less pressure. Busy traffic is best avoided ,such as school times and rush hour until confidence is gained.

You may think that its good motivation to cover as much as possible in the early stages ,but this will lead to severe problems later in their training.

Ensure the basic skills and foundations are established and success will follow. Check with your driving instructor that your planned route will be suitable.

Talking sense:

The choice of words will have a big impact on the way your learner responds. You must try to be precise with your instructions , such as slow down - tell them how much to slow down and what speed you are looking for 20mph for example. To close to the car in front - tell them to keep 3 car lengths so they have something to measure.

You must always keep in mind that actions that you simply take for granted could be very difficult for a learner to understand and if you become short tempered and snappy this will make them feel bad and de motivated.

When mistakes are made instead of telling them what they did wrong, tell them what they need to do next time to get it correct.

When success is achieved tell them how good they were and this will help with confidence and quicken their learning.

To fast.

When people are learning to drive it is common for them to try to do everything too fast, I am not talking just about general speeding but just allowing time for them to get things correct. Emerging at junctions is a good example, undoubtedly to start with the approach speed needs to be no more than an old persons walking pace. This may seem too slow but it is much better to do it slowly at first and succeed than to rush and consequently make mistakes. As confidence and understanding increases then a progression to a more suitable speed can be introduced.

As the supervising driver you must be familiar with the essential mirror,signal, manoeuvre process including position ,speed and gear (M.S.P.S.L).

This process is fundamentally essential when driving and if not followed could cause more harm than good. So therefore it is very important as the supervising driver that this process is followed.

As instructors we can spend more time sorting out what mum or dad has or hasn't done and this can lead to extra time and money.

Finally, and this too is vey important, you must accept that your learner is not going to react as fast as you might think to some situations you may encounter so you will need patience in abundance.

For further advice please feel free to contact us and we will be glad to give guidance.

If you feel that you would be able to be a supervising driver and are wondering how to go about getting suitable insurance for either the pupil's or your own vehicle check out the link below for Collingwood Insurance Services. They have been offering learner drivers the chance to take out their own short-term learner driver insurance since 2007 and still offer one of the most flexible and competitively price policies today, especially when you use our instructor discount code by clicking below. You are able to choose from a short-term policy (7 days - 24 weeks) or a full annual policy to insure either their own car or a vehicle owned by someone else i.e. parents, relatives or friends.

One of the major proplems associated with having a learner's name added to a parent, partner or friend's insurance for private practice whilst learning, apart from the sometimes disproportional increased charge levied on the policy is that in the unfortunate event of an accident occuring whilst a learner is driving their car, is that it is their no claim bonus that will be affected, causing a possible increase in premium and a loss of no claim bonus on the next renewal.

With a policy form Collingwood, it is the learner that is insued on a seperate Dedicated Learner Driver policy, so that any unfortunate accidents caused whilst the learner is driving do not impact on a parent, partner or friend's insurance, thus protecting their on claims discount/bonus.

Another advantage of this type of policy is that ANYONE over the age of twenty one holding a full UK/EU driving licence for three or more years can be the supervising driver.

To see if this kind of policy from Collingwood is both suitable and cost effective click on the link above and take advantage of the discounted rates availabe by using the link above.

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Amy Earl

First time Pass

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April Bonner

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Luke Pearson

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Matthew Bruce

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Matthew Pettit

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Zsuzsanna Chappell

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Annabelle Lamb

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Megan Carter

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Ben Varley

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Ben Howland

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Maddy Thompson

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Maddy Thompson

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Steph Rueff

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Ellie Grindrod

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Amanda Slark

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Ellie Grindrod

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Mark Crowley

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Jack Pollock

First Time Pass

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Sarah McDaniel

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Daniel Phillips

First Time Pass

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Natasha MacGregor

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Sarah Little

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Charlotte Steward

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George Skinner

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Sam Drummond

First Time Pass

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Kerry Searle

First Time Pass

Passed 4th November
Jason Russell

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Jamit Shah

Passed 11th October
Jordan Markey

First Time Pass

Passed 11th October
Nadira Uddin

First Time Pass

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Kayleigh Lensen

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Oliver Acutt

First Time Pass

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Anish Thakrar

First Time Pass

Passed 27 September
Amy Sullivan

First Time Pass

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Alex Davis

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Ryan Dale

First Time Pass

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Tom Barron

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Emma Berry

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Nicola Rogers

First Time Pass

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Sheila Farley

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Daniel Butler

First Time Pass

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Alice Dungate

First Time Pass

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Taylor Anderson

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Charlie Swallow

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Artur Muchegyan

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Pena Mason

First Time Pass

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Charlene Sumner

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Conor O'Donovan

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Philippa Woodley

First Time Pass

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Ellesse Jones

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Alex Pullen

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Paul Skilton

First Time Pass

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Clare Singers

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Alex Lamb

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Sophie Brewster

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Meggan Morris of Caterham

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Katie Earl of Chaldon

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Alan from Kenley

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Connor Devlin from Caterham

First Time Pass


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Emma Morris of Caterham

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Philippa Oxford of Caterham

First Time Pass

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Alex Reiley of Caterham

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Jassmine Collins of Warlingham

First time Pass

Passed 7th August
Daniel of Caterham

Passed 5th July

Kayleigh Paschley of Caterham

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Peter Wackenier of Caterham

First Time Pass


Passed 18th April
Nicola of Godstone

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Nina Collomosse of Kenley