You can get driving lessons at any time of year, but while learning and passing in the spring and summer is a relatively easy way of proceeding, it may leave you short of skills that will stand you in good stead when you have passed and are out on the roads on your own.

Autumn, on the other hand, can provide you with a series of practical skills that mean it is not just changing gears, meeting traffic, changing lanes and following road signs that you will know when you come to take (and hopefully pass) your test.

A clue to what will face you on the roads in autumn can be gleaned from the AA guide to the risks of driving in autumn. For example, it advises you to be ready for the glare of the low sun. That involves practical measures like having sunglasses, but also how to take care of your windscreen to reduce glare and misting.

The guide also talks about maintenance issues connected with batteries and bulbs, as well as making sure your tyre treads are adequate, which is especially important as roads get wetter with more rain, wet fallen leaves and then ice late in the year. While your instructor will take care of these on a driving school car, it is invaluable to know.

Unless you progress very quickly and can pass before winter arrives, you will soon find you are dealing with winter driving too, which means knowing how to deal with poor levels of natural light and bad weather (although lessons may be cancelled if the weather is severe for safety reasons).

In such circumstances, you will learn skills like driving more slowly (but not too slowly) and leaving more space, which will help you avoid accidents in winter in the future.

Our expert instructors will give you plenty of guidance on this as well, which means that by the time you are able to throw away the L plates, you will be a much more skilled and rounded driver, able to deal with more challenges and varied conditions over the course of the year.