Flying training in the UK took its lead from methodology pioneered in 1916 by
Robert Smith-Barry who has been referred to as the father of flight training. His system was never adopted in the USA.
That's not really correct Smith-Barry's contribution was to show pilots emergency situations that could occur and train for them rather than not covering them as was being done before his time. All countries followed that lead.
Just to correct another point in the 30s the first trip pilots would make in military training would be an airborne hop SOLO towards an observer at the other side of the field. If they managed to do a few of these without killing the observer or themselves they graduated to a dual machine with an instructor!