What I cover in the car
Lessons that build a steady driver, not just a pass
There is no package with a clever name here, and no bronze, silver, gold. There is the work you need, done in the order that lets it settle, until you can do the thing calmly before I have said a word.
Complete beginner lessons
If you have never sat in the driver's seat, we start somewhere quiet and slow. Cockpit drill, the controls, moving off and stopping, all in a place with nothing to hit. Only when the car stops feeling like a live thing under you do we take it near real traffic. I will not put you in a situation you are not ready for. That is not softness. It is simply how the body learns faster, when it is not braced for a fright.
Essential Driver Training (EDT)
The twelve EDT lessons are mandatory for anyone on a first learner permit, and they are the spine of learning to drive properly. I take them in order, sign each one off honestly, and I will not tick a box you have not earned. A logbook signed too early only sets you up for a re-sit, and a re-sit costs more than doing it right the first time, in money and in nerve.
Pretest and test-prep lessons
Closer to the day, we drive the way the test drives. The manoeuvres to the standard the tester wants, the roads around your test centre, and the habits marked the way they will be marked on the sheet. If there is a grade three hiding in how you take a roundabout, I would far rather find it than the tester.
Nervous and returning learners
This is the work I am proudest of. If the last attempt put the heart sideways in you, or a licence lapsed and the road feels bigger than it did, we go at the pace that keeps you thinking instead of freezing. Twenty years in, and a level voice beside a frightened person is a skill I brought with me from another job entirely. There is no shame allowed in the passenger seat here.
One learner per car, always. Free pick-up and drop-off around Dun Laoghaire and the south-east coast. Pay for the first lesson only when you book, so if we are not a fit for each other, nobody is tied in.
The patch
I teach out of Dun Laoghaire and cover the south-east Dublin coast, Blackrock, Dalkey, Sallynoggin, Glenageary and the roads around them. If you are a little further out, ask. If you would like to know how I actually run a lesson before you commit, the guides are the closest thing to sitting in on one. When you are ready, the contact page does the rest.