Newslink March
Motor Schools Association of Great Britain; driver training and testing
Motor Schools Association of Great Britain; driver training and testing
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Area News<br />
London meeting offers some great tips<br />
of handling your next Standards Check<br />
Janet Stewart<br />
MSA GB Greater London<br />
Greater London seminar<br />
in Whetstone<br />
On 7th February MSA GB Greater<br />
London held another succesful ADI<br />
event, this time at Whetstone when we<br />
were joined by Teresa Alfonso, Hendon<br />
test centre manager, Ali Saddique, an<br />
ADI examiner, and Chris Zafirakos, L-test<br />
examiner. The evening was attended by<br />
more than 80 ADIs.<br />
After the usual introduction by Greater<br />
London Chairman Tom Kwok, Ali<br />
Saddique took the floor first to discuss<br />
the five main reasons for an ADI would<br />
fail the Standards Check:<br />
First: Not adapting the lesson when<br />
the pupil is clearly struggling with the<br />
task. If the fault cannot be fixed easily or<br />
persists, then the lesson needs to be<br />
changed with the agreement of the pupil.<br />
Do not ignore the fault and just try to<br />
keep going with what you had planned.<br />
If the fault can be sorted out easily, then<br />
revert to the original plan.<br />
Second: The teaching style needs to be<br />
appropriate to the learning needs of the<br />
pupil. The examiner does not want to see<br />
diagrams or hear long briefings. There is<br />
a ‘pretence’, as it were, that the examiner<br />
is joining an on-going lesson so there<br />
should only be brief Q & A to establish<br />
knowledge.<br />
Don’t try to show off to the examiner<br />
by chucking in every bit of knowledge<br />
you, as the ADI, have on the subject –<br />
the questions have to be sensible.<br />
Third: The examiner is looking for a<br />
client-centred approach. The Q & A<br />
techniques need to be appropriate and<br />
relevant. The ADI should listen to the<br />
pupil and make sure that they have given<br />
time for the pupil to answer the question<br />
and correct any misunderstandings.<br />
Fourth: Feedback should be as<br />
immediate as possible and not<br />
retrospective. The problem needs to be<br />
highlighted if it cannot be dealt with<br />
straight away. It is acceptable to stop if<br />
the matter is too complex to be dealt<br />
with on the move but wheels should be<br />
turning for as much of the time as<br />
possible.<br />
Fifth: There must be a proper<br />
conversation about any safety critical<br />
issues. This will usually mean stopping.<br />
With each of the above five points,<br />
common sense must prevail. If the pupil<br />
commits a fault that was not in the<br />
lesson plan, don’t try to get on so fast<br />
that the fault remains only half-remedied<br />
– the exercise may need to be repeated.<br />
This is about learning taking place for<br />
Ali Saddique,<br />
with other<br />
DVSA<br />
representatives<br />
in the<br />
background<br />
the pupil – not the ADI pushing through<br />
his/her plan come hell or high water.<br />
Likewise, if the traffic is bad, the ADI<br />
may have to change the route.<br />
The Standards Check is now only 45<br />
minutes, but that is from the time you<br />
get into the car and does not include the<br />
‘meet and greet’, etc. The examiner will<br />
tell the ADI what time they should aim to<br />
get back.<br />
After a short break for tea and biscuits<br />
(and fruit and chocolates), Teresa Alfonso<br />
spoke to us about how the driving test is<br />
marked. Safety comes first and finesse<br />
comes second. Essentially, the examiner<br />
is looking for deviation from the defined<br />
outcome. To decide on where the fault<br />
should be marked on the DL25 the<br />
examiner will consider:<br />
- What is the fault?<br />
40 NEWSLINK n MARCH 2023
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