Four instructors, each with their own diary, rate and way of working. Pick the one who suits how you learn rather than whoever answers the phone.
Tell us how you learn and we will suggest one. You can change your mind.
Two lessons in, if it is not working, we move you.
Grade A ADI · Manual & automatic · £38 an hour
Teaches mostly evenings and weekends, and takes on more nervous learners than anybody else here. Was a driving examiner before this, which is why the mock tests are as unforgiving as they are.
Grade A ADI · Manual only · £38 an hour
Manual only, and unapologetic about it. Takes the intensive courses and most of the sixth-form work, and will tell you within two lessons whether an intensive is right for you.
Grade A ADI · Automatic only · £40 an hour
Automatic only. Teaches a lot of adults returning after years off the road, and anybody who has tried a clutch and decided life is too short.
Grade B ADI · Manual & automatic · £36 an hour
Newest here and the one with the most weekday daytime slots. Grade B rather than A, which is why the rate is lower, and he will tell you that himself.
Every instructor teaching legally holds a grade or a trainee licence. Most schools do not tell you which, and it is a fair question to ask.
The top DVSA grade, awarded on a standards check every few years. Around a fifth of instructors hold it.
The standard pass. A perfectly good instructor — the difference shows up in lesson structure more than in driving.
A trainee, on a pink licence. We do not use them, and we will tell you if a school you are comparing us to does.
Two things decide it, and neither is who happens to be free. The first is practical: manual or automatic, and when you can actually get out.
The second matters more and gets asked about less. Some people want to be told exactly what to do and why; others need space to work it out and get flustered if somebody talks over them. Those are different instructors, and getting it wrong costs you hours.
If it is not working, say so after two lessons. We will move you to somebody else at no charge and without anybody taking it personally. It is a personality thing and it is far more common than learners expect.
A Grade A instructor with eleven years in costs more than a Grade B four years in, and we publish both rather than averaging them into one number that suits us.
The cheaper option is not a worse option. For a confident seventeen-year-old who mostly needs hours behind the wheel, the difference is marginal. For somebody anxious who has failed before, it is not.
Every approved instructor is observed teaching a real lesson by a DVSA examiner and graded on it, roughly every four years. Grade A is the top band and fewer hold it than most people assume.
It is not a driving test for instructors. It measures how well somebody teaches, which is why it is worth publishing and why we do.
Tell us how you learn and when you can get out. We will suggest somebody, tell you their actual wait, and you can change your mind two lessons in.
01925 640 118