Biography - About Us

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Our Chief Instructor, Stephen Bell, holds an Honours degree in engineering and a Master's degree in Information Technology. Before entering the driving education field he spent some 17 years in the IT and telecommunications industries working mostly in quality assurance and testing. He then successfully studied for Qualified Teacher Status and became a high-school teacher of IT and computing, teaching learners from key stage 3 up to 'A'-level. Although no longer a serving school teacher, Stephen remains a member of the General Teaching Council for England, the regulatory body for the teaching profession.

Stephen has always had an interest in all forms of transport and particular in motoring. He passed his driving test in June 1980 (at the first attempt, naturally!). To date, he has something of the order of two million miles of driving behind him, in the UK, in north America, in western- and central Europe and in the Balkans. Vehicles he's used at various times include cars, motorcycles, open-wheel racing cars, minibuses, 7.5-tonne trucks, armoured personnel carriers and tanks. Weirdly and perhaps unconvincingly, he still refuses to be labelled a petrol-head.

Over the years Stephen became increasingly concerned about the safety of people using our roads as a number of acquaintances, friends and family members became victims of road traffic incidents. In 1996 he took and passed the Institute of Advanced Motorists' advanced driving test and subsequently became a volunteer observer for his local IAM group.

Since 1997, Stephen has spent a great deal of time in Central Europe. His concern about road safety became serious alarm: in parts of Europe there is hardly a family that has not lost at least one member to the roads. It's as though the roads are a particularly nasty war zone. He says he cannot understand why there isn't a huge, public uprising against the carnage caused by poor driving standards in such areas. Use of motorised vehicles in public spaces is a dispensation and a privilege. It does not confer the right to injure or to kill. Stephen decided to devote his energies to ensuring that new drivers are properly educated to drive safely for life. He took the ADI exams and became a DSA Approved Driving Instructor in 2006. Stephen remains fascinated by the art and craft of teaching and learning, bringing appropriate elements of his school-teaching skills experience to driver education. Every lesson is planned and adapted to the needs of his individual student.

For some time Stephen used a national driving school franchise. He was lead to believe (stricktly off the record) that he quickly became the most effective, successful teacher working with the company. He was given a "trouble shooting" role, having students assigned to him who, for example, had struggled with other schools, needed to convert from foreign driving qualifications to the UK driving test, who were returning to driving after driving bans or who were required to take the Extended test.

In 2008 Stephen set up AutoScholar to deliver quality teaching and learning to student drivers in his area. We plan to train driving instructors who have a background in other fields of education, particularly school teaching, since we believe trained teachers can have a particular insight into the delivery of effective teaching and learning and into the individual needs of each student. We believe that effective teaching and learning does save lives: we envisage each of our students contributing to a statistical reduction in the casualty rates on our roads, perhaps for the next seventy years!

Stephen has passed the three necessary examinations to become a DSA Registered Fleet Driver Trainer This additional qualification and registration means that our Chief Instructor is now able to offer on-road risk assessment and driver education to organisations who require employees to drive as part of their job. Since Britain has largely lost its fishing and mining industries, driving is about the most risky activity an employer can ask of its employees, and employers have in law a duty of care to ensure that their drivers have been properly risk-assessed and, where necessary, trained.

We don't do Driver Training. We educate people who drive cars. To us, this is an important distinction.

Why AutoScholar? Or, for that matter, Koalaškola or Autoškola?

Autoškola means "School of Motoring" in Slovakia. Slovakia is a beautiful country with which our Chief Instructor and his family have close ties and which they love to visit whenever possible.

Somehow, starting from Autoškola, first AutoKoala and then AutoScholar seemed to suggest themselves as happy, cuddly names for a driver education school.

Or, to put it another way, no especially good reason at all. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and it's stuck!