Bespoke French Courses for Adult Learners

Bonjour!
If you’re looking to brush up your French skills in a class where building confidence and enjoying learning is as important as making progress then my classes will be perfect for you.

I know that learning in a supportive, friendly and positive environment where you feel comfortable to ‘have a go’ is absolutely crucial and I promise that all my classes will offer you this.
A bientôt!

Find out more about the classes, ranging from beginners to advanced level, here


About Sarah

I have always had an unexplained curiosity for languages from being very little. I was desperate to start French lessons at secondary school and from my first class, my love for French and France kept growing. I learned German and also a little bit of Russian but it was French that captured my heart. I feel so lucky to now be able to share my passion for this beautiful language on a daily basis and with so many people. Learning French has enriched my life and taught me so much in so many ways and I hope you will feel the same too when you join my classes.

To find out more about Sarah’s background, click here


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.

DayTimeLevelLocation
Monday11am - 12.30pmPre-IntermediateNewhey
Monday1.15pm - 2.45pmPre-IntermediateNewhey
Tuesday9.30am - 11amIntermediate PlusNewhey
Wednesday4.30pm - 6pmBeginnersGreenfield
Wednesday6pm - 7.30pmIntermediate PlusGreenfield
Wednesday7.40pm - 9.10pmHigher BeginnersGreenfield
Thursday9.30am - 11amAdvancedGreenfield
Thursday11.45am - 1.15pmIntermediateGreenfield
Thursday1.40pm - 3.10pmPre-IntermediateGreenfield

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:

  • our annual French Wine & Cheese evening

  • our Christmas and summer meals

  • Walk & Talk events

  • Cookery events

  • Cinema trips

  • Theatre visits including seeing the fabulous Christine Bovill and “‘Allo, ‘Allo”


past events

French Cheese & Wine Evening

End of term meals

Walk & Talk

Cinema & Theatre

Cooking

French Evening at Caffè Grande Abaco, Uppermill


Future Events

All upcoming events will be posted here!


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

When two become one

♫ You can also listen to an extended version of this blog post here

Being able to pronounce words correctly is so important to ensure you can be understood when you’re speaking French and this can be quite tricky because of silent letters, accents and different vowel combinations. In my blog from May last year, I spoke about creating go-to words which can be very helpful if you are working on specific sounds.Today, I want to take the idea of practising pronunciation a little further than just practising the pronunciation of individual words. In addition to this, it is very beneficial to practise the pronunciation of words within sentences because they can often sound different. I also think that by becoming more aware of this in your spoken French, it will also help your listening comprehension too. The 3 main reasons for these changes in French and they are liaison, ‘enchaînement’ and elision.Liaison is the process of pronouncing a usually silent consonant at the end of word because the following word starts with a vowel. For example,‘les’ which means ‘the’. The ‘s’ is usually silent:les chaises, les maisons, les crayonsHowever, if the word following ‘les’ begins with a vowel, you pronounce the ‘s’ – which sounds more like a ‘z’:

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

If you have any questions then please contact me on 07919 072135 or using the form below


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🤗

🏋🏼 The French Workout! 🏋🏼

This course is offered at two different levels . Both levels include 8 different lessons and use a range of enjoyable, current and interesting scenarios to tackle some of those trickier aspects of French such as adjectives, possessive adjectives and pronouns, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns and negative structures as well as exploring the different tenses. The course is packed full of listening activities (recorded by me and my two lovely French friends 😊), opportunities to read out loud, explanations, oral and written drills and some short writing tasks.

All for just £50!

👩🏾 Les conversations entre amis 🧑🏻

This course is offered at two different levels each comprising 5 lessons:

Pre-Intermediate / Intermediate LevelThis course helps to build a wide range of vocabulary and useful expressions using conversations between friends that have been recorded by me and my lovely French friend. It focuses on using a range of tenses, negative structures, relative pronouns and direct and indirect object pronouns.

Advanced LevelThis course explores a vast range of vocabulary and expressions using conversations between friends that have been recorded by me and my lovely French friend. It focuses on more complex grammatical structures such the subjunctive, adverbial pronouns, direct and indirect object pronouns and conditional structures.

All for just £40!


Sign Up

For exercises, articles and blog posts to improve your French!