Roundabouts - Cheat sheet for parent teachers Our focus for this blog is to show how non-driving instructors teaching children how to deal with regular roundabouts.  There are three broad category of roundabout.  Mini roundabouts (which we dealt with last time).  Regular roundabouts will have something in the middle, like a floral display or sculpture.  Usually obscuring the drivers view.  And finally we have the extremely large traffic light controlled, spiral roundabouts.    We'll look at these next time.   If you haven't read the mini roundabout ..read more

Mini Roundabouts - Cheat sheet for parent teachers This week's blog topic for non-driving instructors teaching their friends and loved ones how to drive is focusing on mini roundabouts.  There are three broad category of roundabout.  Mini roundabouts should have the blue circular sign with three arrows chasing one another on approach to the junction.   If you miss this, it's a blob of paint on the floor.  Regular roundabouts will have something in the middle.  Floral display, art, mound of earth.  Usually something blocking your view of what's happening on ..read more

Driving Law Changes 2021 Now the UK has left the European Union there are going to be some huge changes to driving laws that we need to all be aware of.  From international travel to improved road safety.  This article is here to highlight and simplify them all for you. Brexit Due to leaving the EU, driving laws here see the most changes.  Anyone driving their own car over onto the continent will need a green card from your insurance provider.  It will act as evidence that your vehicle is insured.  Give yourself several weeks to apply and to receive it as it could tak ..read more

Controlled Stop - Cheat sheet for parents Now that the DVSA has U-turned on allowing parents to practise driving with their children (so long as it's an essential journey), we can start our parental help blog posts again.   This week we're looking at the controlled stop.  Some might know this at the emergency stop, but that might conjure up the wrong image in the drivers mind.  Emergency is far too last second and instinctive.  The examiners want to see the car brought to a short, sharp stop.  However, it must be totally under control.   Get ready This ..read more

Driving lessons in Lockdown 3 So, with soaring Covid-19 cases nationwide, the government has locked us all down for a third time.  What does this mean for driving lessons under the new lockdown 3 restrictions, and is there a possible resumption date on the horizon? Back on January 4th, BJ announced to the nation that the virus was out of control and that from midnight we'd all be back under national lockdown restrictions.  Six days later, this looks and feels very different from the first (and best) lockdown. For a start, so many more shops are open.  The list of key workers i ..read more

Mirror checks, habits and pedestrian crossings - Cheat sheet for parents This next blog post for parents teaching their children how to drive over this Covid infested period is about mirror checks and habits.  After students starting to grasp the basics of control and feeling semi-comfortable with driving on the roads, I like to form good habits early.  The mirror check for speed reduction is one of the most difficult habits to form due to it feeling counter intuitive.  Why would looking away from a potential hazard make any sense?  Getting them to know how close somethin ..read more

Crossroad junctions - Cheat Sheet For Parents This weeks cheat sheet for parents to help their youngsters drive is all about basic crossroad junctions and how to negotiate them.  Crossroads are essentially approaching and emerging situations depending on which way your're coming to them.  So you should be familiar with both of those type of junctions before attempting these.  Major to Minor We'll use the MSM routine for both left and right turns and we have priority over the side junctions.  The difficult issue is turning right and having another road user coming towards ..read more

Christmas driving lesson availability in a tier 3 Bristol Lockdown 2.0 in England has come to an end, but what does this mean for Christmas driving lessons in a tier 3 Bristol?  Covid hasn't gone away but driving tests and lessons can still go ahead in all tiers nation wide.  The only real change is that there are only going to be 5 tests a day and masks are 100% mandatory. Even if you have a valid excuse not to wear one.  If you have a test booked in tier 3, keep an eye on your email as yours could be cancelled to keep to the strict 5 tests a day schedule.  Oh, and Avonmo ..read more

Emerging from junctions This printable post is for parents and friends of learner drivers to help guide them learn how to emerging from junctions.  Emerging is travelling from the minor road into the major.  A more detailed explanation on emerging left and right can be found here on our free online driving tutorials.  We'll assume you know POM and MSM by now.  If not, go back and look it up on previous posts. Turning left Emerging at junctions has similarities with stopping at the side of the road.  It's the MSM routine we'll be using.  To begin with, assume you ..read more

Approaching Junctions(turning left and right into the minor road) - Cheat sheet for parents This weeks cheat sheet for non-driving instructors is to help teach learner drivers how to go about approaching junctions.  This is the term we use when talking about turning from the major road into the minor.  Approaching junctions for left and right are both similar, using he MSM routine (click here for more help on that), but with little twists between each one. Approaching junctions on the left Approaching junctions to the left tends to be the easier.  Getting a nice circuit where ..read more