Welcome, Tom. I really look forward to helping you not only prepare for your restricted driving test but to help you to become a safe and confident driver.
Lesson #3 10th May 2023 4:15 pm until 5:45 pm
Excellent lesson today Tom, it really felt like you’ve extended yourself into the next area. I’m feeling really confident that you’ve got good control of a manual car. So well done! What we want to focus on now, and your feedback, is that if you can really practice not worrying too much about where you’re going but actually focus on what’s in front of you – breaking down all of your road environment into sections. This will do well when a testing officer’s giving you directions on your test and you don’t necessarily know where you’re going. What I also think it will do is stop you from feeling anxious or worried about how you’re going to do something way down the line such as a hill or a junction – just focus on what’s in the present.
What I wanted to also ask you to think about is your head checks, and the speed that you’re in a junction whilst you’re steering – so all of the indicators, ie making sure you break everything down – so your indication- get it out of the way, gear change- get it out of the way, and so that you’re slow enough to steer and head check at the same time. So that requires a little bit of memory as to where your car is going. Practice also using your handbrake at every opportunity so that it flows and becomes second nature to you. So if you can think about that, but apart from that, fantastic lesson, looking forward to meeting you and moving on to the next challenge.
Lesson #2 14th March 2023 6.30 pm until 8.00 pm
Fantastic progress Tom! Practice smooth gear changing and using low gears to navigate low-speed manouevring situations. Work on feeling nervous around traffic and breathe through your junctions breaking it all down into doable actions such as the assessment from the give-way triangle to see if you actually need to stop or simply glide through and keep going. Get as much practice as you can before I catch up with you again as once you feel confident you can manage less busy roads, we can then begin to look at more complex scenarios and how to break them down too.
Lesson #1 28th February 2023 6.15 pm until 7.45 pm
An excellent start Tom – well done for taking yourself out of your comfort zone. You are an intuitive driver and we are on track to you getting places safely.
What I would like you to work on so that we don’t cover the same material in each lesson, is your head chacks, after your mirror checks to cover that ALL important blind spot before you begin to turn. Remember to drop speed to a crawl so you can steer, check mirrors and then be ready to proceed so as not to hold up other road users.
You can also work on slowing down in a manual with a simple exercise. Ask Mum or Dad when sitting beside you on a quiet road such as an industrial estate to decide whether you stop for a pretend vehicle or to go at the intersection so you can react safely. This will help you gain confidence as to how long you stay in second as you crawl into an intersection and then how you drop and stop the clutch and brake whilst moving into 1st gear and applying the handbrake, so you are then ready to go when a safe gap appears. Slowing a manual and stopping with the intention of being ready to go is probably the most vital part of mastering your manual. Find a road that is highly unlikely to have traffic approaching from behind. I can give you some ideas on WhatsApp if you need them.
We will focus on your driving quiet roads next time with you taking full control of the vehicle in quiet but real streets.
See you soon.
Developing a training plan with you is where we begin once you have your theory learner test behind you.
Your training plan will be a structured and logical sequence of progressive lesson plans with the provision for the review of your progress as we go.
Each lesson plan will have its own TRAINING OBJECTIVE which will outline what you will achieve as a result of the session along with the STANDARD to which you need to perform the task and the conditions under which the performance will be assessed along with the RESOURCES that will need to be supplied.
How we deliver our knowledge to you is through three main methods
Controlled Practice – This is where your tutor will carry out the manoeuvre with a full verbal description as we go a couple of times so you have a chance to observe and feel comfortable trying it yourself.
Prompted Practice – Once you are comfortable, you can then try the manoeuvre whilst your tutor prompts you with a word here and there as a reminder as you concentrate on carrying out your manoeuvre
Transferred Responsibility – Yay – this is the bit you get to do it yourself and practice.
This is a record of your progress and must be kept by us on your behalf for 12 months and when added to your lesson plans forms the overall training plan.
Student Name
Lesson Date
Lesson Plan #
Subjects Covered
Seat adjustment
Instruments & controls
Pre-drive checks
Signals
Moving off (straight)
Stopping
Directional control
Moving of (at angle)
Basic gear changing
Speed control
Moving off (uphill)
Moving off (downhill)
Parking on a hill
Gears on hills
Head checks
Stopping times
2 & 4 second rule
Lane driving
12-6-3 Second scans
Hazard awareness
Decision techniques
Amber lights
Priority rules
Blocking rule
Gap selection
Roundabouts
Decision rechecks
Vehicle dynamics
Cornering techniques
Open road driving
Motorway driving
Low-speed control
Three-point turn
“U” turns
Reversing (straight)
Reversing (left corner)
Reversing (driveway)
Parallel parking
Angle parking
Night driving (optional)
Pre-test practice
The following behaviors will not be tolerated by either the tutor or the student or any staff member of ALL TERRAIN DRIVING ACADEMY
Sharon is very experienced when it comes to driver education. An NZTA approved driving instructor, a defensive driving instructor in STREETALK and a member of the New Zealand Institute of Driving Educators and a fully qualified assessor carrying out driver assessments for various NZ government organisations. Sharon is an off road driver trainer too, so you are in experience and patient hands.
You can contact Sharon on 021 029 28023 ( a text is always better) if you have any questions.
Learning To Be A Model Driver
On & Off Road
Off Road Helps Your On Road Knowledge
Modern Day Learning Techniques / Up To Date Tech
