Why do we promote safety?
Whether you are contemplating learning to drive a motor car or you are already a qualified driver please take note. You need to be fully aware that the roads are a dangerous place and so you have to learn not only how to drive but how to drive defensively and safely. The risk of death in a road incident in any one year approaches 1 in 20,000.
With all this in mind, your safety as a good driver, and your responsibility for the safety of your passengers and other road users is paramount. At Cherwell Driving School, then, we strongly promote safety with our aim of significantly reducing your chances of being involved in a road traffic incident when driving by encouraging you to learn and develop the basic and higher skill levels of driving.
How do we promote safety?
Your driving skills will be developed in the following key areas (we call it the ‘High 5’ skills):
- Awareness (observations – what is going on around you)
- Anticipation (to predict that something may happen such as a potential hazard ahead)
- Planning (to take appropriate action before the situation has occurred)
- Judgement (good decision making)
- Car Control (the car controls available and how to use them correctly to control the car)
In addition to providing you with the skills and understanding to be a very competent driver, we will work on developing your higher skills in the areas of risk considerations and self-evaluation. This will enable you to reach an important and necessary overall goal and achieve Critical Thinking as a driver.
Risk – what risk factors do drivers face? Here are some to consider:
- Inexperience
- Teenage passengers
- Distractions while driving eg. mobile phones, texts, loud music
- Driving at excessive speed
- Tailgating or being tail-gated
- Drinking/drugs and driving
- Driving at night
- Road or traffic conditions eg adverse weather
- Social norms (eg. peer pressure to drive in a certain manner)
Self-evaluation is a procedure to systematically observe, analyse and value your own action and its results in order to stabilise or improve them. Driving is a task which involves a high level of reflection and self-evaluation if it is to be carried out safely. The process of feedback develops the student driver so that they can evaluate and reflect on their driving when they eventually find themselves driving unsupervised, for example during the driving test or once qualified and driving alone for the first time. In this sense, encouraging students to reflect upon their own performance is useful and encouraged.
Critical Thinking allows you as the learner driver to make logical choices, to process information, and to look at issues from different perspectives so that you can make safer judgements. In a driving context the main purpose of the ability to think critically is to make better driving decisions.
WINTER DRIVING: We believe in teaching our students everything we can about motoring safety and here is a great guide to winter driving we would like to share : https://www.gocompare.com/motoring/guides/winter-driving-guide/
In conclusion at Cherwell Driving School, we shall build your knowledge and understanding of driving. We will also aim to develop your higher skills of recognising risk and promoting self-evaluation, so that you get to think critically as a driver.