Practising Driving with Parents

Private practice with a parent, family member or friend can be a valuable way to build experience between professional driving lessons. Used correctly, it gives you more time behind the wheel and helps you develop confidence, judgement and independence.

The aim isn’t to replace professional driving lessons. Private practice should support what you’re learning with your driving instructor and give you additional opportunities to put those skills into practice.

By Gary Nolan · Grade A DVSA-approved driving instructor

Who Can Supervise a Learner Driver?

Before practising, make sure the person supervising you meets the current legal requirements for supervising a learner driver. They must hold the correct driving licence and meet the applicable age and driving-experience requirements.

The supervising driver also needs to take the responsibility seriously. They should remain alert, avoid distractions and be in a position to help the learner make safe decisions.

Make Sure the Learner Is Properly Insured

Before driving on a public road, make sure the learner has appropriate insurance for the vehicle they will be practising in. Don’t assume that an existing family car insurance policy automatically covers a learner driver.

If you’re planning to practise in your own car or a parent or family member’s car, learner driver insurance can provide separate cover specifically for private practice.

Private Practice Should Support Your Driving Lessons

One of the most useful things a supervising parent can do is reinforce the skills the learner is already developing during professional lessons.

Before practising, talk about what you have recently been working on with your instructor. This could be moving off and stopping, junctions, roundabouts, meeting traffic, manoeuvres or independent driving.

Choose one or two areas to concentrate on rather than trying to practise everything during the same drive.

Ask Questions Instead of Giving All the Answers

A learner needs to develop the ability to recognise situations and make decisions independently. Constantly telling them what to do can make them dependent on instructions.

Instead, where it is safe and appropriate, use questions to encourage the learner to think about what they can see and what they need to do next.

What Should You Do When the Learner Makes a Mistake?

Mistakes are part of learning. If something goes wrong, avoid immediately turning it into a long lecture while the learner is still trying to drive.

When appropriate, ask the learner what happened and whether there was a reason for the decision they made. Their answer can help identify whether the problem was observation, planning, judgement, understanding or simply a lapse in concentration.

If the situation needs a longer discussion, find somewhere safe and suitable to pull up. You can then talk through what happened without distracting the learner from the road.

Use Guided, Prompted and Independent Practice

The amount of help you give should change as the learner’s understanding and ability improve.

Guided instruction: use more guidance when the learner doesn’t yet fully understand what is required.

Prompted instruction: when understanding improves, reduce the amount of help and use prompts or questions when necessary.

Independent practice: once the learner understands the task and can manage it safely, allow them to make more of the decisions themselves.

The goal is to gradually move from guided → prompted → independent driving.

Where Should You Practise?

Choose roads and traffic conditions that are appropriate for the learner’s current ability. Someone at the beginning of their training may benefit from quieter roads where they have more time to process information.

As confidence and ability improve, practice can gradually include busier roads, different junctions, roundabouts and more varied traffic conditions.

Don’t make a drive unnecessarily difficult simply to give the learner a challenge. The level of difficulty should increase as their skills develop.

What Should Parents Avoid?

• Giving instructions too late.
• Shouting or becoming frustrated when something goes wrong.
• Giving constant instructions when the learner is capable of making the decision.
• Introducing a different method without understanding what the learner has been taught.
• Allowing a situation to become unsafe simply to see how the learner responds.
• Trying to cover too many new skills during one practice session.

If you’re unsure why your learner has been taught something in a particular way, encourage them to discuss it with their driving instructor at their next lesson.

Get More From Every Private Practice Session

Private practice works best when it has a purpose. At the end of a professional lesson, identify something that would benefit from additional practice.

Practise that skill between lessons and make a note of anything that caused difficulty. The learner can then discuss it with their instructor during the next lesson.

This creates a useful cycle:

Professional lesson → focused private practice → identify difficulties → discuss them with your instructor → further development.

Combine Private Practice with Professional Driving Lessons

Private practice can give you valuable additional driving experience, but professional lessons provide structured training and help identify areas that need further development.

Nolan School of Motoring provides professional manual driving lessons in Stockport and surrounding areas, helping learners develop the skills, judgement and confidence needed for safe independent driving.