The scheme has some to a – now temporary – halt with the departure of Peter Jackson into retirement.

Peter had been the instructor for the past fifteen years.

The problem for the school is that the driving instructor must first pass a lengthy, complicated and expensive course before he or she is allowed to take the students out in the school’s training car.

The first obstacle – finding a teacher prepared to devote the time to undergo the training and to pass their knowledge on to the students.

This has been overcome by the offer of the school’s Careers Advisor Stephanie Needham to fill the gap.

Stephanie is no stranger to Crookwell – her father Bill also taught at the High School in years past.

The next problem to overcome was meeting the cost of Stephanie’s training – $3,980 – with the Piet Institute, based in Sydney.

School Principal Brian Hudson first sought help from the Rotary Club to part-finance the course – a request that was immediately met.

The plan was for Rotary to pay $1600 of the cost, with the school meeting the balance from funds accumulated from the nominal $10 fee charged the students over the years.

However, when he heard of this Barry Jamieson, proprietor of Spackman’s Motors, would have none of it.

He immediately offered to meet the balance himself.

His thinking was that the school needed to retain its funds to meet the cost of eventually having to replace the current training car.

Rotary President Don Southwell then upped the Club’s offer to meet half the cost, with Barry finding the other half.

Barry, of course, has been closely associated with the driver training scheme from its very inception, and still provides the servicing needs of the vehicle.

Principal Hudson has expressed his great appreciation of the help so quickly forthcoming from Barry and Rotary.

As for Stephanie, she now faces a rigorous training course that will occupy her over at least the next six months.

It involves health and Police checks and theoretical and practical training from experts.

The importance of the scheme lies mainly, of course, to give students a sound grounding in driving skills and the importance of safety.

The plus for parents is that the cost of the tuition is significantly less than commercial lessons, and that every hour of training by Stephanie will be worth two hours of parental tuition!