A message from Mandy

Hi Everyone,

My name is Mandy Thomas and I very much hope to become your future Female Driving Instructor based in Wallington.

After sourcing the very best training and development and throwing my absolute heart and soul into it, I qualified straight onto the prized Approved Driving Instructor Green Badge in March 2005, so here we are now in 2026 marking 21 years & counting.

Wow! how the time has flown doing what I love doing and working with pupils of all ages who seek me out to be their person during their own unique learning to drive safely for life journey.

I am also extremely proud to be the holder of Grade A status which signifies an extremely high standard of teaching that was introduced in 2014 and I retain that status currently.

We are periodically assessed by senior DVSA examiners who sit in on a lesson and carry out a deep assessment of all parts of the lesson process and teaching delivery and working partnership with the pupil.

I am very much an established and key part of our local instructors groups that are run on the WhatsApp platform and within that we are very much a supportive community looking out for each other with help, industry related news sharing, guidance, support and advice where it is sought and this helps us to maintain a very good professional working relationship with local area DVSA Test Centre Managers and staff.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is very important to me so I work hard to stay across all Industry related changes and news as well as attending courses or webinars often run by The Driving Instructors Association (DIA), the most recent of which was dedicated to teaching drivers with diverse needs which was extremely interesting and useful, but generalised on the day due to timing constraints so should not infer expertise in every complex scenario.

Other courses run by Industry professionals where the topic is applicable are keenly pursued.

I personally adopt a mix of traditional teaching with new format coaching and this is to ensure that all my pupils receive bespoke, tailored teaching and I work tirelessly to address any issues or fears about learning that you may have or have experienced in the past.

Understanding, addressing and eliminating risk from your driving is a very core part of modern teaching.

I have limitless patience and everything is calmly delivered, but with a good dose of humour where appropriate as I believe that our learning partnership works best when it is interspersed with shared laughter along the way.

As you get to know me you will find that I have my own very quirky library of unique ways of helping you deal with the more tricky elements of driving.

Please do take a few moments to look at the testimonials tab on this main page menu from some of my wonderful ‘passed’ pupils or from their families.

These will hopefully clearly show you that I literally go The Extra Mile every time and I am 100% committed to every student throughout their learning journey and beyond.

I cover all aspects of your development of Safe Skills for Life and my tough mock test programme with role play ensures that you are fully equipped for the future and become fully ‘Driver ready for a safe lifetime on the roads’ and not just able to pass the Driving Test in its current form.

My current training vehicle is a silver coloured Nissan Note Acenta 1.5dci (diesel), 5 door manual gearbox with air conditioning and eco mode driving setting.

The vehicle is fully insured for all elements of teaching and has dual controls fitted as necessary.

For our additional safety, a front and rear facing dash cam has been professionally installed & your personal footage from your lessons is made available to you as a specific referral & learning tool.

It is a nice, spacious vehicle that is kept in immaculate condition inside and outside by me personally, suits (*most) heights and leg lengths and has good visibility too.

*In some cases it may be necessary for you to try out the seating positions in the car first ahead of actual lessons starting to ensure that it is a physical fit with you & that you & the car are mutually compatible.

Teaching areas covered: Banstead, Belmont, Carshalton, Cheam & North Cheam, Coulsdon (Woodcote School, Woodcote Road side only), Hackbridge, Morden, Nonsuch School area, Sutton, Wallington and Woodcote.

*If you live in any other areas please make that very clear to me in your first contact by either your full address or postal code to establish if it is coverable within the capacity I have.

Following a permanent change to my personal circumstances, my working hours availability is as follows:

Mondays to Fridays: 9.30am/9.45am start, working through the full day to a latest 6.00pm finish.

Saturdays: These are protected slots available to 2 pupils only between 8.00am to 12.15pm finish & this may also cover SMART or regular motorway training, post test training or time set aside for a parent or sponsor to join a lesson to see the development of the pupil or a supervised mock test & also for Full Licence holders undergoing necessary retraining after many years of not driving or loss of confidence issues.

No lessons are available on Sundays or Bank Holidays.

Single, 1 hour lessons are no longer viable these days due to the ever widening areas of speed limit reductions and more congested roads, but for context the term 1hr is referred to in the fees section as part of charges for tuition.

After the sad loss of several DVSA Test Centres from around the area in recent years, Morden Driving Test Centre (Tudor Drive) has now become my default local test centre and I am proud that I have a very friendly and very professional rapport with the team there.

They are a lovely team with a very respected & approachable Manager & they all want the very best for the pupils who they assess.

I work to and am supported by professionally drawn up and legally backed Terms and Conditions from the Driving Instructors Association, of whom I am a member.

These are firmly enforced by me at all times to ensure good conduct by all parties concerned.

These will be made available to you in advance of your learning beginning and will require full sign off and compliance throughout. Thank you

I really hope that the above has whetted your appetite for wanting to learn to drive based on many reasons that may have brought you to this point.

Please give me a call, leave me a clear voicemail message with your contact number if my phone is off whilst I am teaching, driving myself or outside of normal hours, send a text, email or find me on other links such as WhatsApp or FB so that we can discuss your personal needs in much greater detail and I cannot wait to meet you very soon and start on your journey to success!

I look forward to speaking with you & meeting you soon.

Mandy (aka Madders) 😊