French is my mother tongue. Teaching it has been my life's work.

I grew up speaking French, trained as a teacher, and spent my career in UK classrooms helping English speakers fall for a language I have loved my whole life.

For many years I taught French in British schools, and I had the privilege of leading a department as Head of French. In that time I worked with well over a hundred students: anxious beginners, GCSE classes the week before exams, A-Level students wrestling with literature, and the occasional adult who turned up convinced they were “too old” or “no good at languages”. They almost never were.

What I learned in those years is simple. People do not need to be clever to learn French. They need a teacher who explains things clearly, notices what is actually getting in the way, and makes the room feel safe enough to make mistakes. Mistakes are where the learning lives.

Why I teach online now

I have since returned home to France. Teaching by video means I can keep doing the part of the job I love most, the one-to-one teaching, while reaching learners wherever they happen to be: a British family newly arrived in the Dordogne, a sixth-former in Manchester, a Canadian planning a year in Lyon, a couple who want to surprise French grandparents at Christmas.

Online lessons are not a compromise. For one-to-one tuition they are often better. We share documents instantly, you keep every note in one place, and you learn from the comfort of your own kitchen table, which is exactly where most real French ends up being spoken.

How I teach

Every learner is different, so every plan is different. But a few things stay constant.

• We start with you. Your reason for learning shapes everything, from vocabulary to pace.
• We speak from the first lesson. Grammar matters, but you learn a language by using it, gently and often.
• We aim at something real. A conversation, an exam grade, a phone call to a French office. Goals keep us honest.
• We go at a humane pace. Enough challenge to grow, never so much that you dread the next lesson.

My job is not to be the cleverest person in the room. It is to make you feel that French is something you can do, because it is.

If that sounds like the kind of teaching you have been looking for, I would love to hear from you.

Send me a message