Fergus – Nine Mile Burn
Fergus was the last out of his family to learn to turn seventeen and learn to drive. Over the last few years, I had been out with his two sisters Molly and Caitlin who were both successful in managing to pass their driving tests. They were also both lucky enough that they passed on their first attempts this added a little pressure for Fergus to hopefully do the same.
We began driving lessons just at the end of Fregus’ easter holidays. Fergus was currently in his fifth year at high school in Edingburgh and was going to be sitting his higher exams a few weeks later. On our first driving lesson, Fergus had already done a little driving with his dad so we headed to the edge of Edinburgh where my main aim was to get his clutch control up to a very high and consistent level. To do this I took Fergus to a housing estate full of uphill junctions which were also pretty blind when going out. This ensured we had to be slow and accurate with the control of the car. Fergus did well and learnt fast, he followed what we were trying to achieve and wasn’t afraid to ask questions.
Once we had the clutch control sorted it was now time to put everything together, we headed into various roundabouts, discussing when you would signal what position you would be in and Fergus did well taking in this information.
Between driving lessons, Fergus was getting to practice with his mum and dad which was making a noticeable difference. As his exams started he was also on exam leave meaning we could vary the times of day we went out on our driving lessons. Sometimes starting in Nine Mile Burn and other times starting in Edinburgh. Fergus managed to get his theory test scheduled for a few days after his final exam. He successfully sat and passed this just at the end of May. We were now onto the final preparation, after carrying out a mock driving test it was clear that Fergus was pretty much ready to go yes we had a few things to fine tune but we could do that in the next couple of lessons.
With the test coming up in a few week’s time Fegus went to work on getting his consistency right up, we practised, he went out with his mum and dad and also used the videos on my website.
When the day of the driving test came around I was really confident Fergus would do well, he had done the preparation and was ready to show the examiner he could drive safely and knew what was going on. I was delighted when he came back he had passed on his first attempt with compliments from the driving examiner. Well done Fergus.
