Richard

With over 15 years tutoring French GCSE, IGCSE, A-level, Pre-U, SAT and Westminster and Winchester School candidates, I`m a 53-year old graduate of the excellent University of Sussex languages course with a First Class Honours degree in French and Russian. I lived for four years in Paris where I mastered the language and the accent!

I have also acted in plays in French, taking on the role of Alphonse in a production of The School for Wives, and touring to schools abroad to perform in front of students learning French elsewhere in Europe.

I like to stay abreast of French culture and society, read Le Figaro everyday, and regularly watch French TV news and discussion shows.

Availability: I teach every day of the week, mainly in the daytime, and also in the even and at weekends.

When all tuition moved online in 2020, I quickly became an expert in online lessons, generally via Zoom, making use of Google Docs, online whiteboards and video-sharing services to achieve fully interactive lessons.

My audio equipment is state-of-the-art meaning the sound is crisp, and that you can hear the pronunciation perfectly, and I can hear you well enough to spot any mistakes in your accent!

Even if in-person lessons are much better generally, it is still possible to get great results from online tuition, and the switch did not prevent students I was working with at the time from getting two `A`s at A-level, an entrance into Westminster School, and two `9`s at IGCSE in 2020.

Willing to travel: 2 miles

Experience: I have tutored students at all levels, covering most UK exam boards at GCSE, IGCSE and A-level, and I have also helped prepare students for their SAT in French and the DELF exam. I`ve taught adults who are complete beginners, or have some vague memories of what they learned at school, as well as helping several students gain entry to Westminster School via their Challenge exam

Successes from the last (2022-23) academic year included three `A` A-level grades, and an `8` (up from a predicted `4`) at GCSE.

For A-level students, I have already taught Albert Camus`s L`Etranger, Françoise Sagan`s Bonjour Tristesse, Delphine de Vigan`s No et moi, Joseph Joffo`s Un Sac de Billes, François Mauriac`s Thérèse Desqueyroux, Azouz Begag`s Béni ou le paradis privé, Denis Diderot`s Jacques le Fataliste, and Emile Zola`s Thérèse Raquin, and am familiar with all the other current set texts as well. Au Revoir Les Enfants, Intouchables, Entre Les Murs (The Class) and La Haine are the films I am best acquainted with from a teaching point of view.

Selective schools I have helped pupils get into include Westminster, Winchester, Sedbergh, City of London, Mill Hill and Tiffin School for Girls. I can easily help with any school that uses the Common Entrance exam, and using past papers as a guide to future papers, it is simple to deduce what children need to know to do well in bespoke exams set by the school itself.

Here are some comments from a few previous students - originals available on request.

`We could not have asked for a better result - A*s! He got full marks for the reading paper. Thanks so much for all your help, and patience.` - Margaret (parent of home-schooled GCSE student)

`Henry won a scholarship to Westminster. Exactly what he was aiming for." (Leslie, student`s mother)

`Thank you so much for all your patient hard work - you taught her exactly the right stuff and there is no way she could have done it without you! I really didn`t think it was possible to teach the whole year 7 curriculum in a week but somehow you managed it. Tiffin Girls is one of the top state schools in the country and rather competitive. Chatting to the other parents outside the exam, most of the competitors went to good independents or had been tutored over a long period of time. You really knew not only what to teach but how to teach it, which shows you have exceptional skills.` - Anoushka (pupil`s mother)

`Just thought I should let you know I got an A! Thanks for all your help` - Helena (A-level student)

`I ended up with an "A"... thanks for all your help, both my spoken papers improved, over my previous efforts.` - Philip, mature student sitting AS and A2 French

DBS Check: Yes