I consider myself to be a complete novice however - I could do most basic flight manoevres - turns: climbing, decending, etc S&L flight, take-off and landing, navigation etc. before embarking on training
If you are a complete novice, then you don't know anything and thats where you should have begun.
I recall in 1968 when one of the last courses to graduate from Hamble were not offered postions by BEA/BOAC who sponsored the training. A number applied to join the RAF and despite having graduated with a Senior CPL (SCPL) the RAF only offered them traing as Navigators becuase it assessed that retraing them as pilots would be too much of a risk.
I recall having a flying scholarship student who was the son of a RAF Station Commander, he had flown many hours as a cadet in Cipmunks. Training him was quite difficult, all he wanted to do was go solo. He finally soloed at about 7 hours.
Try another instructor, just tell them how far you have got, don't mention your "passenger" flying, let the instructor assess you and take it from there.