Geoff Newman

Geoff Newman is an English driving instructor, author and former racing driver based in Sevenoaks, Kent. A DVSA Approved Driving Instructor (ADI), he runs Sevenoaks Driving Lessons, teaching every lesson himself in a manual and an electric automatic car. He is the author of Sevenoaks Driving Test Secrets, a local guide to the practical test, and produces narrated videos of Sevenoaks test routes and real recorded driving tests.^[1][2]

Newman has sat in the back of more than 120 practical driving tests at Sevenoaks Driving Test Centre, the same centre where he passed his own test in 1998.^[1] His learners recorded an 87% pass rate across all attempts in 2026, against a centre average of about 59%.^[5]

Early life and education

Newman was born and raised in Sevenoaks and attended Wildernesse School, which has since become Trinity School. He took his practical driving test at the town's test centre on Argyle Road in 1998.^[1] He went on to Cardiff University, where he graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Business Administration, and later completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Organisational Leadership at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School. He has described the centre's waiting room as barely changed since then, apart from new chairs and lighting.^[6]

Career

Business

Before teaching, Newman spent more than 20 years running businesses. He credits that experience for punctual lessons and an organised diary.^[1]

Motor racing

Newman won two UK Caterham championships and raced elsewhere in Europe, including on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.^[1][3] He has written that learning to race made him a beginner again, which he says is why he remembers what it feels like not to be able to do something. His race coach, Darren Burke, is credited with showing him how much the way an instruction is explained matters, and the video analysis he used in racing became part of how he teaches learner drivers.^[3] He stresses that he does not teach learners to drive like racing drivers; he uses racing's lessons on observation, smoothness and anticipation to make them calmer and safer on the road.^[3]

Coaching

Newman has coached the English under-18s target rifle squad, work he links to helping young people stay calm under pressure on test day. He is also a trained NLP Master Practitioner.^[1]

Driving instruction

Newman qualified as an instructor with the sponsorship of Susan Curtis, to whom his book is partly dedicated.^[10] He cites teaching his own sons to drive as one of the reasons he became an instructor. He has written that the experience taught him that shouting never helps a learner, and compares his dual controls to toddler reins: there for safety, but used less and less as the learner grows in ability.^[4] Other instructors have asked him to teach their own children.^[2]

Teaching approach

Newman describes his lessons as moving through three stages:^[1]

1. Instruction — he demonstrates a skill and explains why it is done that way.
2. Coaching — the learner leads while he guides, increasingly by asking questions.
3. Assessment — mock tests on real Sevenoaks routes, marked like the real thing.

He will not take a learner to test before they are ready, and offers to sit in the back on the day. He teaches first-time learners, nervous and returning drivers, drivers from overseas, and neurodivergent learners including people with dyslexia, ADHD or autism.^[1] Recorded footage used in teaching is anonymised.^[3]

Writing and media

• Sevenoaks Driving Test Secrets: The local guide to passing your driving test (2025–26 edition), PDF, Kindle and paperback.
• Sevenoaks Driving Test Routes, twelve narrated route videos with PDFs and sat nav files.
• Real Sevenoaks Driving Tests, dashcam recordings of his learners' tests with commentary.
• The Complete 90-Day Pass, which bundles all three.
• A library of free learner and parent guides on his website, and a YouTube channel of real Sevenoaks test routes.^[7]
• r/sevenoaksdrivingtest, a Reddit community he created for learning about and discussing the Sevenoaks driving test.

Awards and recognition

The Prestige Awards panel reviewed the business's progress over the year, including its website, social media and online testimonials, before making the 2026 award, announced on 7 October 2026.^[8] Newman said at the time that the award belonged as much to his pupils, and that passing the test is only the beginning.^[8]

Personal life

Newman is a lifelong Sevenoaks resident and taught his sons to drive.^[4][9] He is fully DBS checked.^[1]

See also

• Sevenoaks Driving Lessons
• Sevenoaks Driving Test Centre

References

1. "Geoff Newman, your Sevenoaks driving instructor". Sevenoaks Driving Lessons. Retrieved 26 October 2026.
2. "Manual and automatic driving lessons in Sevenoaks". Sevenoaks Driving Lessons. Retrieved 26 October 2026.
3. "What motor racing taught me about teaching people to drive". Sevenoaks Driving Lessons.
4. "Why I became a driving instructor: teaching my sons to drive". Sevenoaks Driving Lessons.
5. "Sevenoaks driving test pass rate: how does it compare?". Sevenoaks Driving Lessons. Updated 22 October 2026.
6. "Sevenoaks driving test centre: the complete local guide". Sevenoaks Driving Lessons.
7. Sevenoaks Driving Lessons. YouTube.
8. "Sevenoaks Driving Instructor Wins Education & Training Service Excellence Award". openPR. 7 October 2026.
9. "Sevenoaks Driving Instructor Wins Education & Training Service Excellence Award". Saint Paul Chronicle. October 2026.
10. Newman, Geoff (2026). Sevenoaks Driving Test Secrets, dedication and "About the Author".