This is the worst driving school. The title "Lockport #1 Driving School" does not accurately represent this school. Where do I begin, I started the classroom portion of the class during the pandemic, so the lessons were over zoom. The lessons were pretty alright, but when a student would get an answer wrong on a question, the teacher "Mr. G" would get upset at them and talk down on them. Mr. G was never proud of any of his students and never gave praise for a student getting an answer correct. The behind the wheel portion of the class was the worst part. When I say the worst, I truly mean the worst. Mr. G was rude and unprofessional. When I drove with him, he constantly got angry when I was driving perfectly fine. Every time a student wouldn't drive the exact way he wanted them to, he wouldn't give reassurance he would simply say things like "if you drive like this on your driver's test you will immediately fail". When I was doing my observation and Mr. G told a student driving that she shouldn't even think about getting her license yet. The anxiety that Mr. G would give students was obvious and I could see how the students didn't feel comfortable. I feel like as a new driver this would really hurt someone's self-esteem. Mr. G would constantly talk about people dying in car accidents and if he wasn't talking about that he would sit in silence. If a student made a mistake, he would make demeaning comments to them. I don't know how he thought that students would stop making those same mistakes if he would just criticize and be rude to them instead of explaining and telling them to do better next time. Out of all my hours of driving with Mr. G he never said one positive thing during my driving. Even before the driving he was rude, when I got into the car I said, "wow it's so cold outside" and Mr. G said, "that's not my problem". He would have no patience with his students, and I don't think he should be able to teach if he does not change his attitude towards students. Mr. G has unrealistic driving expectations. I understand driving safe and properly, but the way Mr. G wanted his students to drive wasn't comfortable, safe nor efficient. Reading other reviews, I see people have had the same problem. read more

Wow! Paul P's review nearly mirrors my review! My husband and I are both in education. We are big fans of supporting local businesses so we decided to go with Lockport #1 Driving School. Our experience would give this school zero stars if allowed... very far from their claim to be number 1! I called to sign my son up during the pandemic and was told he could join the class already in session as he could make up the 2 classes at the end. When the class ended he had to come in person ( even though all the other classes were done on Zoom), and he was given busy work to complete independently in his workbook. It was as if he was being punished for missing the 2 classes. Behind the wheel with Mr H is where everything takes a turn for the worse! He is difficult to communicate with and only wanted to schedule lessons for one week out at a time. I would call him and he'd answer his cell phone and tell me to call him back between certain times. He was always busy and I had to be the one to call him AGAIN. He became sick and missed a behind the wheel and we were not notified. I could look past his poor communication skills and lack of manners.. people make mistakes. The part I cannot and will not get past are his antiquated teaching methods and his dictatorship approach with his students. My son came home after each lesson saying " Mr G hates me." As a teacher, I'm quick to defend another teacher and did so throughout his 6 hours of lessons with my son. My son would come home and say "He grabbed the wheel, berates me and keeps threatening to fail me." I chalked it up to 15 year old drama and took every thing he said with a grain of salt because MR G never mentioned any areas of weakness or skills my son needed to improve upon. On the very last day my son came home with a D-. I'm not sure how this cumulative arbitrary grade was decided so I called Mr G and of course upon his request I had to call him again with the time he specified. I don't doubt my son has skills he needs to work on but not once was any of his shortcomings verbally or in written form communicated with my husband or I. How he arrived at a D- is still unclear. No rubrics... nothing in written format just a letter he randomly assigned. I'm disappointed that I purposely chose this school to support locally and the experience just tore him down. You, MrG., Give teachers a bad name and should consider retiring. If your goal was to tear down new, scared drivers and rule with fear then you've succeeded. read more

Customer service is absolutely terrible! The driving instructor is very unprofessional. It took for ever to schedule the 6-2hrs driving/observation lessons. He made my daughter very nervous behind the wheel. Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. read more

went here 2018 and it was awful. mr g was very rude and would make me cry behind the wheel. would take 5 minute "breaks" for him smoke disgusting. went here in the dead of winter and they didn't even have heating during one of the "classroom" lessons. it's "cheap" for a reason read more

Our sons just finished the classroom portion/behind the wheel section of the class. They both received A's in the classroom/testing part of the class and then received poor grades on the driving part. They only have one instructor, Mr. G, and honestly, he should not be allowed to teach. He yells/berates students, tells them they are going to fail, and demeans them - negative behaviors that make them lose their confidence and creates an atmosphere of nervousness/uncertainty of themselves especially behind the wheel of an already overwhelming act of driving a vehicle for the first time. We unfortunately heard about these behaviors after the fact or would of went somewhere else. We also saw him by chance while he was driving with another student in the area doing the same behaviors; yelling ad raising his hands in disgust. My wife and I are both teachers. I've been teaching almost 30 years and also am certified from the state of ILL to teach Drivers Ed. In practice driving with my kids - they do a great job - not perfect, but pretty darn good. Being educators and of the old school mind set, we usually side with the teacher in situations like this - kids tend to bend the truth/etc... We even told the kids when we took them out practice driving - do exactly as the instructor told you to do; even though we knew in out hearts and mind it was the wrong way. I think people would write more bad reviews then what's showing up here, but I think they are happy as long as they/their kids passed the class and unfortunately don't see past that. (Our kids passed the class - but we couldn't let it go). Please take this as a warning, parent to parent, do not use this school. It will take the spirit out of your kids and make them bitter towards driving - which in the long run defeats the purpose of taking the class to become better drivers. read more

Our two sons took their behind the wheel instruction through Lockport #1 Driving School. The instructor was very accommodating to our family's busy schedule. We had to schedule in advance of sometimes knowing our actual schedule, but the instructor was understanding about needing to cancel and reschedule as long as we did so a few days in advance. As far as instruction goes, my husband and I believe it was outstanding! Of course we were not in the car to witness this personally, but every time my husband or I drove our sons somewhere after they completed a session, we were reminded by our sons of all the correct rules for safe driving! I was very pleased they were paying attention and learning! I was also reminded how much we, as parents, are watched by our children and how important it is to set a good example. My husband and I are very comfortable riding as passengers in our car now when a son of ours is driving. We give Lockport #1 Driving School a great deal of credit for this! Thank you! read more

Mister G did a great job instructing my daughter. After taking the 12 hour course she is now confident to drive. My younger daughter will be starting here next year. read more

Absolutely awful! I seriously doubt that the teachers are even qualified, behind the wheel was a joke, the instructor would make us stop so he could take a smoke break, and would constantly grab the wheel when I was trying to drive. In class, all they did was tell stories about car accidents they had either seen or been in. They also never sent my high school the proper forms saying that I completed drivers ed, so when it came time for graduation that was a real pain. 0/10 if I could give negative stars I would. read more

This company has the worst customer service. Trying to schedule behind the wheel is a joke. The driving schedule is at 8 pm and then they change it 7:30 pm. And then you show up at 8 which you were told and they cancel and they want to pay a cancel fee. Go to orland driving school. read more