Peter Skelton Driving School provide instructors in Andover and the surrounding areas. With a high level of experience in driver training, going back to 2004, we can offer a top service to all our pupils. We pride ourselves on a high level of commitment and attention to detail.

Why choose Peter Skelton Driving School

• • Male and female instructors
  • Manual and automatic
  • Catering to nervous and anxious pupils
  • All lessons are taken at your own pace
  • High pass rates
  • Intensive and semi-intensive courses available
  • Free theory training
  • The highest standards of tuition
  • Motorway lessons
  • Refresher lessons

When people think about taking driving lessons they normally think about what they need to do to pass their driving test. There is however so much more to driving than simply passing a driving test. In fact you can never stop learning and improving your driving. When you reach the standard to pass your driving test it is the minimum required in order for you to drive safely and to, as one examiner puts it, “continue learning by yourself”.

At Peter Skelton Driving School we aim to get pupils to a higher standard than just the bare minimum that’s needed to pass a driving test in Andover. That’s not to say you will be learning forever. It doesn’t mean that you will be better than people who have been driving safely for 20 years. What it does mean is that we will provide you with the tools to enable you to better deal with situations when driving by yourself.

There are many things that are different or may change after you pass your driving test. The first time you drive may well be by yourself and for the first time ever you won’t have anyone next to you to help you out if things get tricky. I remember that feeling only too well. I can remember glancing sideways wondering why there was no one in the passenger seat next to me. You may drive for the first time with friends in the car. This can add problems such as friends possibly encouraging you to go faster or take a risk like overtaking when you don’t feel confident to do so. They may also want to crank the music up loud which may well be a distraction.

A trip to McDonald’s is a likely place to go on your first drive. Believe it or not a drive through can be tricky to negotiate as the lane can be tight with a kerb on both sides. Similarly a multi storey car park can be difficult with not just a kerb on both sides but a wall on one or both sides. Look closely next time you drive or are a passenger in a car as you drive up the ramps and you will invariably see scrapes on the walls where drivers have misjudged the width correctly.

We are more than happy to teach you how to deal with these aspects of driving. This could be done on your lessons before you take your test or after you pass. Some examples of lessons that we have done before or after test, that you would never have to do on a driving test, are; driving to a pupils place of work, Costa drive through, driving to school, reversing into their own driveway, motorway driving, driving to a pupils parents house 50 miles away, driving in snow, driving at night, country roads at night. Feel free to ask your instructor to go through anything that you may feel is useful to your learning.

Lessons are always done at the pupils own pace. Some learners are very confident and have good natural ability. They are happy to be pushed or encouraged to progress quickly. Other pupils are a little more nervous and struggle with the whole concept of driving a car. As such they may want to take things a little more slowly. The pace of the whole learning experience is down to you.

With a complete beginner we would normally talk through the controls to see what the learner may know already. Next we would talk about moving off and stopping using the “POM” and “MSM” routines. We may then offer a demonstration of how to move off and stop safely if the pupils wants it. The pupil would usually swap seats and we would go through the cockpit drill. In other words set the car up for them to be able to operate all the controls safely. The pupil would then do their first move off and stop by either having a go with no help, maybe a few prompts from the instructor or more usual would be a complete talk through. After that we would normally move off again but this time incorporate a second gear change. This is often practiced when stationary at first so the pupil knows what they need to be doing with their hands and feet. Moving on from that we would normally cover; turning left and right in and out of side roads, experience the effects of coasting, feel the effects of engine braking, the “Natural” speed of each gear, uphill and downhill starts.

Andover has it’s fair share of roundabouts. There are around 10,000 roundabouts in the UK having been invented here in the UK in 1909. Circular junctions, however, go back to the 1700’s. In Britain roundabouts were standardised in 1966 whereby motorists gave way to cars already on the roundabout and approaching from the right. France didn’t adopt the modern roundabout until the 1970’s, however since then they have built many more and now boast the most roundabouts in the world.

Andover is a town in Hampshire which lies on the River Anton and 20 miles to the west of Basingstoke. It is twinned with it’ name sake in America, Goch in Germany and with Redon in France. It has a population in the region of 50,000. The town was mentioned in the Doomsday book of 1086 and had a population of around 500 inhabitants which was considered large at that time. There were 6 flour mills in the area at that time which would suggest it was an important market town for flour. Later on the town seems to have become a market town for wool with some of its street names certainly suggest this legacy.