Safe and Sound School of Motoring - www.safeandsounddrivingschool.com

This is a very school (just 1 car) and is owned by a lady by the name of muriel John. Where do I start. Firstly the good. She has great telephone manner and presents herself very professionally. Now the rest.

I was recommended by a friend who passed with her 10 years ago. Initially things were ok but alarm bells should have started to ring in my head when she encouraged me to do five three-hour sessions in 1 week. This is 15 hours and I was feeling fatigued after 2 days of this. When I said I didn't feel that 3 hour sessions were for me, I was told that I have to as it would take an hour to get to the test centre and the test would take an hour so 3 hours is the only way To get the stamina to do it. After a week of the five days 3-hour sessions I dug my heels in and said no more. I will do 3 2-hour sessions. she was reluctant to agree but as I am the customer she couldn't really say no. I noticed that from that time the quality was going down and a lot of passive aggressive comments were directed at me which made me feel less confident and angry as I felt that not only I was not improving I was actually getting worse. Things came to a head after a particularly bad session in which I was openly mocked for stalling a car during a 3 point turn. after which I think she realised that I was not happy so she was trying to be nice and patch up the relationship. I decided enough was enough so I terminated the agreement. I was worried that it was my fault so I randomly booked in with a large company. I very quickly improved and passed with only 1 minor fault. I understand that the big companies are pot luck but from my experience if an independent school is pushing you to do too much or pushing you to do over long sessions or assume that you are going to do pass plus, be aware that they are not busy probably because they are no good.