51/51 Standards Check

We are happy to announce that Susan McCormack co-managing director of Tri-Coaching Partnership had her standards check today and achieved the magic score of 51/51. Her description of the lesson she gave is below:

​I took my 23 year-old son, who hasn't driven for two years but prior to that owned a car and did a lot of driving in and out of London.
I carried out a brief assessment before my Standards Check and identified that he approached situations too quickly and did not give himself enough time to assess the hazard and decide on the best course of action. I privately wondered if commentary would help him with his forward planning. I didn't really discuss this assessment with him until the Examiner was sitting in the back of the car.
We set the goal and agreed to focus on planning the approach to roundabouts. I asked him how he would like to do this and we agreed on me asking questions on the approach around what he could see, why it was a hazard and how he was going to deal with it. I divided up the responsibility for risk and told him I would give him directions.
At one roundabout he pulled out in front of a car unsafely. I questioned him on it but then had to take action because he was clearly distracted. It was unsafe to leave the roundabout so I told him to go round again and put his right signal back on. Then I reassured him and said we would discuss this in a moment.
When we pulled up we discussed the risks involved and I highlighted that this was the goal we were working on anyway. I helped him then approach at a better speed using 'brakes to slow, gears to go'. Then I left him to it. We pulled up again and I suggested that he talk himself through roundabouts and was thrilled when he did so because the change in his driving was dramatic.
At the end, I asked him questions so that he could reflect on the goal and how well he thought he had done. He agreed that talking himself through had really helped him time his approach and start looking earlier.