Your first driving lesson

Your instructor collects you from home, work or college. The first few minutes are paperwork and setup: checking your provisional licence, agreeing what you want out of the course, and driving to a quiet area — they drive that bit.

Then the cockpit drill, with the engine off. Doors, seat, steering, seatbelt, mirrors. It sounds trivial and it is not: a badly set seat is the cause of half the clutch problems learners have in their first month.

Then the controls, explained one at a time while stationary. Pedals, handbrake, gears, indicators, lights. Nobody expects you to remember all of it.

Usually about half way through. A quiet estate road or empty industrial estate, first gear only, 10 to 15mph, with your instructor talking you through every step of moving away and stopping.

You will repeat that sequence a lot. Move away, drive twenty metres, stop, secure the car, repeat. That repetition is the lesson.

In a manual you will probably stall. Every single learner does. The instructor is not annoyed, and there are dual controls on their side if anything goes wrong.

Your provisional licence — the plastic photocard. Your instructor legally cannot teach you without seeing it.

Glasses or contacts if you need them to read a number plate at 20 metres. Flat, thin-soled shoes: trainers are fine, boots and thick soles are not, and driving in flip flops or bare feet is a bad idea long before it is a legal argument.

Nothing else. No insurance, no car, no theory test progress needed.

Book two hours rather than one if you can. The first hour is largely setup, and stopping right as it starts to click is frustrating.

Say if you are nervous. Instructors adjust the pace constantly and cannot do that if you are quietly panicking.

Ask what you should work on before next time. Even without a car available, sitting in a stationary car and running through the cockpit drill and gear positions genuinely helps.