Classes

All the classes focus on helping you to develop your listening and speaking skills, whilst building your range of vocabulary and structures, to ensure you feel more confident engaging in conversation. Keeping class sizes small (between 6 and 12 learners) is very important for me so that you can feel as comfortable as possible and can quickly build a strong relationship with other learners in the class. No matter when you join us, you will always be very welcome.
If you see a lesson that interests you, please do not hesitate to contact me to find out what we are currently working on and to receive some sample materials so you can make sure it is the right class for you.

All the classes are delivered in blocks of 6 weeks. Lessons are 1.5 hours long and each block costs £69. When you join the class, you will receive a file for all the resources we use and an exercise book for your notes.

about sarah

After completing my BA Joint Honours in French & English Literature at The University of Leeds in 1998, I moved to Toulouse where I lived and worked for nearly 5 years. I worked for a language learning consultancy that took me all around France and gave me the privilege of working with some very senior business people. It was a bit nerve-racking at times but amazing! The pull of home eventually became too much and in 2003, I returned to Oldham to work for the borough’s Secondary School Improvement Team. I missed using my French so much that in 2010, after the birth of my second son, I did my PGCE and was fortunate to teach A level French alongside my studies at the local sixth form college - where I had studied too! I loved my job here but in 2016, I decided to branch out on my own to try to gain a healthier work life balance and have since grown my little teaching business from one class of 8 adult learners to 10 classes of over 75 learners. I also offer some one-to-one tuition and our ‘out of the classroom’ activities play a huge part in our learning. Find out more about these here.

When I’m not teaching, reading about teaching or preparing resources for my classes, you are most likely to find me on the side-lines of football matches watching my sons, walking our gorgeous dog or enjoying a wine with my husband and our friends.

Events

Bringing learning to life and having the opportunities to practise your French in different situations, as well as learning more about France and the French way of life is so enriching. Over the years we have taken part in some lovely activities such as:

past events

Reviews

I've just started learning with Sarah and I can't recommend her enough. She creates a comfortable environment and makes learning enjoyable. I look forward to my classes.

Allison Jayne Sandiford

Oh we have just a wonderful time throughout our French classes. Sarah is not only an excellent teacher, I mean excellent, but has a wonderful sense of humour . We learn , laugh and learn some more . Sarah also arranges such special French outings like a cookery course or a visit to the Home Mcr to see a French film., Walk and Talk walks . We have met and made new friends too . Thank you Sarah a very special teacher 😘

Marie Kenny

I have been going to these classes since September 2018. I can honestly say it’s a joy to be in one of Sarah’s classes. I am an intermediate beginner which means I had school French which I failed the exam and some vocabulary I’d picked up online. Now I have some perfect, imperfect and simple future tenses and lots more vocab. I have even plucked up courage to speak a few sentences in conversation. The lessons are fun and Sarah engages with all her learners. She never picks on people unless she is confident they can answer the question. Each lesson is well prepped and she uses a variety of learning methods to appeal to different learning styles. Sarah has a number of classes from new learners to advanced conversations. Highly recommended.|

Heather Ward

Blog

Another example is the word ‘le temps’ which means time and also weather. To say ‘le temps’, you don’t pronounce the ‘p’ or the ‘s’. However, in the lovely expression ‘de temps en temps’ (which means ‘from time to time’), you pronounce the ‘s’ of the first ‘temps’ because it is followed by ‘en’ – so you follow the pattern of liaison - but not the ‘s’ of the second ‘temps’.

‘Enchaînement’ is different to liaison as this is the process of pronouncing a consonant that you would usually pronounce but moving it to the start of the following word. For example
To say the number ‘8’, you would say ‘huit’. If you wanted to say, he is 8 years old’, you would say:

If, like me, you like using the conjunction ‘donc’ which means ‘so’ and ‘therefore’, you may already be using ‘enchaînement’. For example:

Elision is very similar to the contraction that we use in English such as ‘I don’t’, ‘I’d like’, ‘he’ll’ and is also shown with the use of an apostrophe. It is usually used in French to replace a vowel to help pronunciation. For example:

~~~ All previous blogs can be found ***here *** ~~~

Contact Me

courses

Online courses

If you are looking to complement your existing French studies or dip your toe into learning French online for the first time, I am sure that you will love one of my online courses 🥰

The courses are all packed with a variety of listening and reading activities with opportunities for you to practise your own spoken French with structured reading out loud tasks 🥰

You can work through the courses as quickly or as slowly as you like to help you develop and consolidate your wonderful French skills🤗

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