Refresher Driving Lessons
April 14, 2011
On 2nd April The Telegraph published an article about driving refresher lessons. They highlighted 3 people that had taken them. The first person was a young man in his 20’s. The second was a woman in her 40’s. The third person was a one of my pupils! All of whom had lost confidence in their driving for various reasons. My pupils name is Patricia Jackman, she’s 77 years old, retired and drives a Peugeot 207 automatic. She took a course of refresher lessons with me in 2010. Below is a summary of the article.
“Having passed my driving test 1972 I drove in London for many years. Later on we moved to Cornwall where I continued driving. Driving in Cornwall was much easier than the busy roads of London. Then in 2005 myself and my husband, Norman, moved to Newbury in Berkshire. Newbury isn’t as busy as the roads in London but certainly a lot busier than the roads of Cornwall. Somehow I had lost my confidence to drive again on busier roads. I went for 5 years without driving. I relied on Norman to drive me everywhere.”
“In 2010 I made the decision to do something about my nervousness of driving as I wanted to be more independent. I decided to take the bull by the horns and booked a course of refresher lessons with Peter Skelton Driving School. The first lesson was nice and gentle to assess my driving and to get my confidence back. We drove around a few quiet, local country lanes. At the end of that lesson I asked Peter his honest opinion as to whether I was good enough and safe enough to drive on my own. Surprisingly he was very supportive. He said to me that my driving was actually very good. I went away feeling quite pleased with myself. I took two more driving refresher lessons after that. The lessons involved driving around Newbury town centre and on the busy A34. We also practiced driving to the local hospital, the local supermarket and practiced reverse parking in a bay.
“I am happy to be driving again. I would recommend anyone who has lost confidence in their driving ability to take some refresher lessons. My only wish is that I should have done it 5 years ago.”