Would You Just Do A Normal Lesson On Your SC?

23 Mar Would You Just Do A Normal Lesson On Your SC?

You have received a letter saying that you have your Standards Check next week, you have space in your diary and you also have a pupil that would be available for the lesson. You get all philosophical and resigned about it and say to yourself “Well, there’s no point in putting it off so I might as well do it and get it over with!”

In that situation, what would you change from your normal lesson? 

Taking into account that you said “yes” to DVSA, what are you thinking now and more importantly, how are you feeling?

Although it’s really down to the individual how they deal with it, because it’s such an important assessment (one that could potentially take away our livelihoods) leaving it to chance i.e. just giving a normal lesson could end up being disastrous.  If a ‘Fail’ is recorded (of course there’s a chance of two more goes) our confidence is affected and it can be hard to recover.

On the other hand, it could be considered that you’re supremely confident about your teaching ability. You got a grade 5 or 6 last time round and therefore, especially considering that we’re told not to change anything by the examiners, an ‘A’ is well on the cards.

But then you hear of other instructors that have always received good grades on the old style Check Test and yet have somehow failed or received poor scores on the Standards Check.  So what to do?

Is it a good idea to try to “engineer the test”  through going over routes, picking easy pupils or selecting subjects based on what WE as trainers are good at rather than what our clients require? This way you exercise some control over the situation. By doing this, what could go wrong?

Especially if you can get the pupil to come out with you before the check and go over it with them.  But that means that you’re NOT doing a normal lesson;  because in ordinary circumstances you don’t go over the lesson you’re going to do with your client before you do it with them, do you?

Also, there’s the new kid on the block isn’t there?

Client Centred Learning. How CCL is it to prepare a subject and pupil that will showcase our skill as a trainer rather than pick our normal pupil who is scheduled for the time of the Standards Check and give them the next logical lesson in the driving syllabus that THEY require to improve their development?

There are so many things to consider that it merits some discussion amongst trainers with regards to the best approach. What would YOU do?