GCSE and IGCSE
GCSE French preparation, built around the specification.
Four papers, one tier decision, and a mark scheme that rewards specific things. We start from the board your school actually follows and work backwards from the exam series.
Start here
Most lost marks are technique, not French.
By the time a pupil reaches Year 11 they usually know more French than their grade suggests. Marks are lost to unread role-play instructions, to photo cards answered too briefly, to translations that lose accuracy marks for tense, and to writing tasks that miss a bullet point. All of that is teachable, quickly, once someone marks the work as an examiner would.
The first thing we establish is the board and specification — AQA, Pearson Edexcel, Eduqas, or an IGCSE from Cambridge or Edexcel — because the assessment objectives and the paper structures genuinely differ, and generic tutoring quietly ignores that.
The four papers
Each is prepared separately, with the weakest weighted heavier.
- Speaking
- Role-play, photo card and general conversation. Rehearsed until the pupil can be spontaneous inside a predictable structure, with the opinion-and-justification language that lifts the band.
- Listening
- Trained as a skill: question-type recognition, distractor awareness, and not losing the next item while replaying the last one in your head.
- Reading and translation into English
- Detail work, inference, and translation that keeps the meaning without inventing English that is not there.
- Writing and translation into French
- Bullet coverage, tense range, complexity and accuracy — in that order of priority, because that is how the marks are allocated.
The decisions that change grades
A tutor's real value here is judgement as much as teaching.
- Foundation or Higher
- A decision with grade consequences in both directions. We give a view based on marked work, in good time, and share it with the family plainly.
- Exam series and timing
- Everything is planned backwards from the series. Mock results are used as data, not as a verdict.
- Vocabulary strategy
- Board vocabulary lists worked systematically rather than by hope, with retrieval practice between lessons.
- Speaking confidence
- For many pupils the speaking paper is the anxiety, and rehearsal with an unfamiliar adult is precisely the practice school cannot always give.
Preparation
How GCSE French preparation runs.
Every programme opens with a diagnostic: a written task and a spoken task marked against the criteria of the examination itself, not against a general sense of level. That is what tells us whether the gap is language, technique, or exam literacy — and they are prepared for very differently.
The specialist is matched from our network for that examination and that candidate, with a chemistry call before you commit, a review at week six, and oversight through to the exam date.
- Board and specification confirmed in the first conversation.
- A past-paper diagnostic marked to the scheme, with the marks explained.
- Weekly work targeting the two weakest papers.
- Timed practice from the outset, not only in the final term.
- Speaking rehearsed regularly with a specialist.
- Parents given a straight view of the likely grade and what would move it.
Two ways to prepare
Private GCSE French preparation, or a small cohort.
One candidate, one paper, one date.
A specialist matched from our network for GCSE French, a programme written around your actual gaps, and scheduling that fits around school or work.
From £89/hr
See the investmentNo GCSE French cohort is open yet
Group exam terms run only where enough candidates share the same examination and level — we do not advertise cohorts that are not scheduled. Tell us what you are sitting on the form below and you will hear first when one is timetabled.
Register your interestThe evidence
What GCSE French candidates and their families say.
Verified Google reviews from Learn&Co candidates who prepared for GCSE French with us.
“I engaged Learn&Co to help my daughter boost her grade in her French GCSE. She had previously been doing well in French at school but due to staff changes her marks started to fall. There was practically a year when the French tuition was…”
“I began being tutored by Maria in 2018 when I was getting ready to start French A level. I'd taken my French GCSE in year 9 so felt like I'd forgotten everything by that point 2 years later. Maria put me through my paces, coming up with…”
“Maria coached our son for his French iGCSE. She met him not long before the exam at a time when his school was predicting that he was unlikely to gain a good grade and he had convinced himself that he was simply no good at French. Within a…”
“I thoroughly recommend Learn and Co, I loved my sessions with my tutor. My tutor helped with my French GCSE, she made the lessons personalised and engaging, bringing in topics that I enjoy, as well as working on necessities such as grammar…”
“My son has been working with Learn & Co for around a year, to supplement his French GCSE studies. The lessons are well organised and tailored appropriately and we have seen a marked difference in his grades over that period, which he…”
“Maria is an outstanding tutor - focused, professional, personable and thoughtful about the needs and learning styles of her students. We are very pleased with the tutoring our daughter has received as she moves towards sitting her French…”
“Maria helped my son hugely with preparation for his French GCSE. He went from a predicted grade 4 to a 6 - thanks in large part to 1 hour of French each week with Maria. Maria is also a really lovely person and my son enjoyed the lessons.”
Posted on Google
Who we prepare
Trusted by families, schools and organisations.
GCSE French candidates reach us from two directions: pupils in schools that expect a grade, and adults whose next step depends on a certificate. Both are prepared by a specialist matched from our network.
Corporate clients
Professionals sitting language tests and diplomas
Employees at these organisations have prepared with us for language tests, official diplomas and the requirements attached to a move abroad.
Partner schools
Pupils preparing for school examinations
Pupils at these schools have prepared with us for French papers, against the specification their school actually follows.
Investment
What GCSE French preparation costs.
Private preparation is bought as hours, used at the pace the exam date demands. The more hours you commit to, the lower the effective hourly rate — and every plan carries the identical service.
Hours of private exam preparation, delivered online and typically used at one hour a week. All prices include VAT. Face-to-face lessons in London, intensive revision courses and additional hours are quoted individually.
Flexi
4 hours
Month to month
£105/hr£420 in total
Discovery
12 hours
Up to 3 months
£100/hr£1,197 in total
Momentum
24 hours
Up to 6 months
£95/hr£2,268 in total
Mastery
48 hours
Up to 12 months
£89/hr£4,284 in total
Every private plan, whichever you choose, includes
Bespoke programmes — not lesson bundles.
- Exam and board diagnostic
- Specialist matched for that qualification
- Chemistry call before you commit
- Programme dated to the exam
- Marked past-paper practice
- Monthly progress reports
- Week-six review
- Timed mocks in the run-in
£950 for a ten-week term
Per learner, 10 × 90-minute sessions — 15 teaching hours. Including VAT. Maximum six candidates, one exam objective, one level.
GCSE French enquiry
Tell us the board, the year and the target grade.
Phone number required. We will come back with an honest view of the gap and the specialist we would match — someone who teaches that specification, not French in general.
Everything you send goes straight to Maria. We reply personally, usually the same working day.
Before you book
GCSE French — your questions, answered.
- Do you need to know the exam board?
- It helps enormously, and if you do not know it we will find out with you. The papers, the vocabulary lists and the assessment objectives differ between boards.
- How many lessons a week?
- One weekly lesson suits most pupils working over a year. Pupils starting late, or aiming at a significant grade jump, usually need two, and we will say so rather than let a plan quietly underdeliver.
- Can you help with the tier decision?
- Yes, based on marked past-paper work rather than on impressions, and in time for the school's deadline.
- Do you use past papers?
- Constantly, and marked to the mark scheme with the marks explained. Pupils who understand where marks come from stop losing them.
- Face to face or online?
- Both. Online suits most families and widens the pool of specialists; face to face in London is available where a suitable tutor is nearby.
- Is there a GCSE group course?
- Where a cohort is genuinely scheduled it appears in the French group catalogue. When it is not, we say so and offer private preparation.
Preparing for a different examination?
Each qualification has its own format, its own marking and its own timetable. Choose the one you are sitting and we will show you exactly how it is prepared for.
Prefer to talk it through?
Schedule a chat with Maria.
Tell us which GCSE French route you are on, where you are now and when you sit. You will get an honest view of the gap and which specialist we would match you with.
Maria Toubbe
- 20 minutes
- A conversation, not a sales call.
- With Maria
- Our founder, every time — not a call centre.
- No obligation
- Advice you can use even if you never book.
20 min · video call · free
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