Providing a Hare's corner for our pupils

Hello, I want to provide a brief video for trainee driving instructors as well as already established driving instructors.  It is this kind of content that you are about to receive here that you can reasonably expect to receive on your BIG TOM driving instructor training.  It’s the sort of stuff that differentiates you from a mediocre driving instructor and a good driving instructor.  The title of this one is Providing a Hare’s Corner for our Pupils.  I’ve come to a very rural location you might even hear some cows any time.  I’m right near some farm land.  And “hare’s corner”, I’ll read it: “Rural tradition of leaving a field corner uncut for animals to escape in to; a place of refuge or escape”.

That would be a very good concept to keep in mind when you are training with your pupils.  Because the skills that you are encouraging them to develop are ones that take some inner thought, we are not talking about a light switch here where one minute they are not doing certain skills and the next minute they are, these are skills that need to develop and come from within, and ruminate.  These things have to develop over time and be given space in which to, you are raising awareness and you are raising skills of self-evaluation.  This is not something that just happens.

I can give an example of the day before yesterday with a pupil of mine where we were dealing with a ‘safety critical incident’ involving a national speed limit single carriageway road, and somebody did what was a very dodgy overtake.  And this actually came into the conversation.

It was clear for me to see that my pupil was experiencing a difficult time for her to gather her thought processes in a coherent way about that safety critical incident.  And that is absolutely fine, it really is fine, it is necessary to give them that space, that place to go to, to allow them to feel….. you got to remember what it feels like when you are learning, those inner feelings that you get when the learning curve or progress is not linear, that is not a given.  It is going to ebb and flow.  As a learner, when you are in a moment where it is not great, then that feeling you get, you need to be feeling that you are in a safe environment and you are not being in any way attacked, or criticised, or judged by your inadequacies.  And this is exactly what I’m talking about, with this here.  We need to bear this in mind, we really do.

I recall, about 20 years ago, working for an electronic company, and going to a convention for ESD (electro-static discharge) where devices can be damaged if you don’t handle them correctly.  Myself and 2 colleagues went to this conference and I was heading this up.  Quite by chance, we were in a massive room, in a meeting with lots of people there; there must have been 30 or 40 people around this table.  Quite by chance, what was offered to me was quite surprising, completely took me off my feet, very flattering but never the less, I really wasn’t expecting it.  A person came to my aid, how I would like to thank that person.  That person provided a ‘hare’s corner’ in that moment of time so although I’m talking in a training environment this really does crop up at any time when we are in dialogue with other people.  It’s a really massive point.

It is a difference between a driving instructor who is going through the motions, an average driving instructor and someone who is taking trouble to take care of their pupils in a learning environment.  In an effective, safe learning environment.

With the franchisees in the BIG TOM franchise, they are expected to become a member of one of the 3 main driving instructor associations.  In the past I have been a member of all 3 of the major ones in the UK.  The DIA has got a conference coming up on the 17/11/2017 at Wyboston Lakes Bedfordshire.  And it is good, I have been before and it is good.  I think the DIA is good, out of the 3 of them, they are the ones that shine.  They do a magazine each month and on page 26 of this months magazine there is an article on websites.  7 tips for driving school websites, and it is good.  Most of the stuff they do is good.  Websites are incredibly important; they come under the Business Support Foundation Block in the BIG TOM driving instructor training.  It is incredibly important.  There is much more to it than they can give here, it is just that it is such an important subject, there is a lot lot more to websites, but it is a good starting point.  And this is the kind of thing that they do well, they are bringing up things that are important to look out for.  Under the business support foundation block with BIG TOM we really go to town with this as it is so important.

I hope that is a helpful blog.

http://www.drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/customer-benefits