Driver training: 55 students come back to school for four days during the holidays to get their learner licences

Anyone looking for proof of the importance of a driver’s licence to teenagers need only look at the success of a Hastings Girls’ High School project.

Fifty-five students came back to school for four days over the holidays for what mentors say is a life-changing achievement that should be part of the curriculum.

Students of Hastings Girls' High School cruisin' with Chrissy - Senior Constable Chris Leppien, left, who helped them succeed in attaining their learner driving licences. Photo / Doug Laing

The first week of the holidays ended with all 55 attaining learner licences – shuttled with the help of police community staff between the school and the AA and VTNZ testing stations for the tests on the last day of the project last Thursday.

Now they are also armed with the credentials to help update parents and other caregivers on the road code as the guardians are expected to shoulder much of the driving lessons behind the wheel.

With the standard six-month wait between attaining the learner licence and moving to higher honours, some of the students could have restricted licences by the end of January.

This enables them to drive without supervision between 5am and 10pm, so long as they obey conditions about who else is in the vehicle.

Careers teacher Maxine Gilmour, the school’s Gateway and Student Secondary Tertiary Alignment Resource (Star) co-ordinator, and police school community officer and qualified driving instructor Senior Constable Chris Leppein say it’s one of those “life moments”.

It’s especially key for those overcoming challenges such as fear of failure as they successfully tackle the first step of possibly the most important qualification as they prepare to graduate into the workforce.

Not having a licence is the “biggest barrier” on the path to employment, says Gilmour, who, along with Leppien, feels almost the same exaltation in each individual success as the students.

They’ve seen smiles, they’ve seen tears of joy, Gilmour saying a lot would not have had the chance without the funding that was applied to the course.

“It’s incredible,” she said, and, while understanding the difficulties of splicing licence training into the curriculum, says when asked if it should be: “absolutely”.

Several students said since receiving their learner licences they had already started lessons with parents.

Leppien has developed the video and website Cruisin’With Chrissy - you can find it at cruisinwithchrissy.weebly.com/ - which covers off some of the detail of the course.