Bring your provisional licence, your glasses or contact lenses if you need them to read a number plate at 20 metres, and flat thin-soled shoes. That is the entire list. The licence is the only one that will stop the lesson if you forget it, because your instructor is required to see it.
The list is short enough to fit in a sentence. Bring your provisional licence, bring your glasses if you need them, and wear flat shoes. Everything else on the internet's version of this list is optional at best.
What follows is why each of those three matters, and then a longer section on the things people bring, worry about or try to arrange in advance and do not need to. The second list is the useful one, because most first-lesson anxiety is about the wrong things.
The Whole List
- Your provisional driving licence, the physical photocard
- Glasses or contact lenses, if you need them to meet the eyesight standard
- Flat, thin-soled shoes
That is it. No paperwork, no cash unless you have agreed to pay in cash on the day, no learner materials, nothing to print.
Your Provisional Licence
Your instructor is required to see the physical licence before you drive. This is not a formality they can be talked out of, and it is not satisfied by a photo on your phone or a screenshot of the DVLA confirmation email. Approved instructors check the card because their insurance and their licence to teach depend on the person in the driver's seat holding valid provisional entitlement.
A forgotten licence usually means the lesson does not happen, and depending on the notice given, it may still be chargeable. It is the single most common reason a first lesson gets written off, and it is entirely avoidable: put the card in the pocket you will be wearing, the night before.
If the licence has not arrived yet, do not book the lesson for that week. Online applications usually produce a card within about a week, but the DVLA can take longer, and there is no way to start lessons on a pending application. The process end to end is in how to apply for a provisional driving licence.
Glasses Or Contact Lenses
The legal standard is being able to read a number plate from 20 metres, about the length of five parked cars. If you need correction to do that, you must wear it every time you drive, and that includes the first lesson on a quiet residential street.
Your instructor may ask you to read a plate at the start of the first lesson. It is a reasonable thing to check, and it is exactly what a DVSA examiner will do at the start of your practical test. Failing that check on test day ends the test immediately and counts as an attempt, so a habit of always driving in your glasses is worth building from hour one.
Contact lens wearers: bring your glasses too if you have a pair, particularly for an evening lesson. Dry eyes at 8pm in a warm car are a real thing and not a good moment to discover you have no backup.
Shoes
Flat, thin-soled and reasonably snug. The sole is the part that matters, because it is the only thing between your foot and the pedal, and everything you learn about smooth braking is learned through it.
| Fine | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Trainers | Chunky boots and work boots |
| Plimsolls and flat pumps | Heels of any height |
| Driving shoes | Sliders, flip-flops, anything backless |
| Bare socks, at a push | Thick-soled fashion trainers |
Nothing here is a legal requirement. It is a control requirement. A thick sole makes gentle braking feel like a guess, a backless shoe can come off under the pedal, and a heel changes the angle of your ankle enough to make the last few centimetres of brake travel unpredictable.
If you are coming straight from work in unsuitable shoes, keep a pair of trainers in your bag and change in the car. Instructors see this every day and nobody minds.
What You Do Not Need
This is the list worth reading twice, because these are the things people delay their first lesson over.
- A theory test pass. Not required to start lessons, only to book a practical test. Most people learn and revise in parallel, which is the sensible order.
- Your own car. The instructor brings a dual-control car with L plates already on it.
- Your own insurance. You are covered under the school's policy while you are driving the tuition car. You do not need to arrange or check anything.
- Paperwork. There is no form to fill in, nothing to sign in advance and nothing to print.
- Any prior knowledge. You are not expected to know what the pedals do, which way the mirrors adjust or what a bite point is.
- A parent or friend in the car. First lessons are one to one. Someone can come along if it genuinely helps, but ask first, and be honest with yourself about whether an audience helps.
- A learner logbook or app. If your instructor uses one they will introduce it. Buying one in advance is money spent on nothing.
Things worth having, though nobody will ask
Water, if it is warm. Your phone, on silent and in a pocket rather than in your hand, because you will want it for the pick-up call and for nothing else during the hour.
And a rough idea of what you want out of the hour, which matters more than any object on this page. Telling an instructor "I have driven a bit on private land" or "I have never touched a car and I am dreading this" changes how the first twenty minutes are run.
The Night Before
Almost every first-lesson problem is a night-before problem. Five minutes of preparation removes all of them.
- Put the licence in the pocket or bag you will actually be carrying, not somewhere sensible you will forget.
- Put out the shoes you are going to wear.
- Check the pick-up address and time in the confirmation, and check it is the address you will actually be at. Work and home get mixed up constantly.
- Save your instructor's number in your phone, so a call on the day is not an unknown number you ignore.
- Eat something. An hour of concentration on an empty stomach is worse than it sounds, and mid-afternoon lessons catch people out.
What you do not need to do the night before is revise anything. There is nothing to prepare for and no knowledge you are expected to arrive with.
What Nobody Will Test You On
There is no assessment at the start of a first lesson and nothing you can turn up having failed to prepare. Your instructor may ask whether you have driven before, whether anything affects how you sit or move, and what you want out of the lessons. That is the whole intake.
You will not be asked what the pedals do, which way to turn the mirrors, what a bite point is, or anything from the Highway Code. All of that is taught, in order, starting from the assumption that you know none of it. If you have read ahead, that is fine and it will not slow you down, but nobody is checking.
Where The Lesson Starts
Pick-up is from wherever you have agreed: home, work, college, a station. There is no premises to travel to and no branch to find, which removes the classic first-lesson worry of turning up somewhere unfamiliar with time to spare and nerves building.
Be outside a couple of minutes early, and if the road is one where stopping is difficult, say so when you book and agree a spot round the corner.
You will not be asked to drive out of a busy junction to begin with. The instructor drives to somewhere quiet and the swap happens there. What that first hour actually consists of, minute by minute, is set out in what actually happens in your first driving lesson.
If You Forget Something
Wrong shoes can usually be worked around: an instructor will often let a lesson run in socks rather than in boots, or wait while you nip back for trainers. Forgotten glasses are more awkward, because if you need correction to meet the eyesight standard then driving without it is not a judgement call. The licence cannot be worked around at all.
Glasses or shoes cost you a few minutes. The licence costs you the lesson. If you realise on the morning that you cannot find it, ring and move the lesson rather than hoping, because an instructor who cannot see the card cannot let you drive.
If nerves rather than logistics are the thing making you check this page for the fourth time, that is a different problem and a common one. It is worth reading nervous about learning to drive, and if you would rather ask a person than read a page, get in touch before you book.
The wider picture of where this first hour sits in the whole process is in the complete guide to learning to drive in East London.
A first beginner lesson is £37 for the hour with pick-up included, and nothing is committed beyond that one hour.
Start the beginner courseBefore your first lesson
Do I need my provisional licence for the first lesson?
Yes, and it has to be the physical photocard. Instructors are required to see valid provisional entitlement before you drive, and a photo of the card on your phone does not satisfy that. Without it the lesson generally cannot go ahead.
What should I wear to a driving lesson?
Whatever you like, with flat thin-soled shoes and nothing that restricts how far you can turn to look over your shoulder. A heavy coat is worth taking off once you are in the car, because it makes the seatbelt sit oddly and makes shoulder checks harder than they need to be.
Can I drive in socks or bare feet?
It is not illegal, and socks are better than heels. It is not ideal either, because you lose some feel for how hard you are pressing and a bare foot can slip off a pedal. Keep a pair of trainers in your bag instead.
Do I need to pass my theory test first?
No. A provisional licence is the only requirement to start lessons. You need the theory pass before you can book your practical test, which is a different and later deadline.
Can someone come with me on my first lesson?
Ask your instructor first. It is sometimes allowed and occasionally helpful, but a passenger in the back of a first lesson makes most people more self-conscious rather than less, which is the opposite of what the hour is for.
Licence, glasses if you wear them, flat shoes. Everything else is the instructor's job to bring.
Start the beginner courseMore in Getting started
Published 1 September 2026. Prices and DVSA figures are checked when this page is revised. If anything here has changed, ring us and we will confirm it.