Port of Tyne steps in to help St. Mary’s Alternative Education and Behaviour Support Service

The Port of Tyne stepped in to help St. Mary’s Alternative Education and Behaviour Support Service in South Tyneside with an unusual request from Clickdriving motoring school.

Clickdriving are one of the leading motoring schools in Tyne and Wear and it was an appearance on BBC Look North that prompted Maria Tufts, from St. Marys to contact Clickdriving.

"I contacted Clickdriving to arrange for our students to take part in a young driver’s awareness course as part of their ASDAN Key Steps qualification – road and transport safety is a key element of this course and the challenge was for the students to conduct themselves safely as a road user. The fun part was that they actually got to drive a car!"

"Clickdriving was brilliant and only too happy to help but it was looking unlikely that the driving lessons could go ahead as we couldn’t find a location in South Tyneside" says Maria Tufts.

Ian Goodfellow from Clickdriving says "I suddenly thought of the Port of Tyne and the large estate at Tyne Dock in South Shields. When I first approached the Port of Tyne they couldn’t have been more positive and said they had the perfect spot to accommodate four instructors’ cars."

Brian Darling, Port of Tyne, Estates Manager says "We were pleased to be able find a suitable space for the school; it’s an excellent initiative to promote road safety amongst young people. As the Port is a major logistics operation the importance of road safety is always high on our agenda".

The group of 13 to 15 year-olds took part in the sessions to provide new skills and responsibilities, and to encourage road safety and respect for road users.

"It was great to be able to work to help make the event happen" says Ian Goodfellow. "The young people and driving instructors really enjoyed the experience".