French A-level - intensive/immersive half-term courses?

[CapriceDeDieux]

Can any one recommend an intensive immersive half-term course for A-Level French please? Can be in London or France. DD is Yr13 and wants to move from a steady B in mocks to an A if possible. We were meant to get a week sorted in the Summer, but didn't manage it. She is hoping to continue French at uni (though joint/combined with something else).

I have found a few courses in Paris, but hard to see how effective they are and not sure about some of the reviews of host family experiences (though with a random teen in your home I am sure it goes both ways).

Personal recommendations/experience would be great please.

Hi @CapriceDeDieux, I know this is not what you asked, but are you sure an immersion course is going to do what’s needed? I don’t have any to recommend, sorry, but I would say that a course in Paris is surely unlikely to have the focus on the A level exam that is needed at this stage.

Yes, living in France in a French family for a week will help her French; but will it help her do better in the exam? Not so certain.

I imagine a week’s immersion would cost maybe four figures? Might that be better spent on 12-15 one-hour lessons with a French A level tutor who really knows the spec and who can see where she is losing marks?

Where is she losing marks btw? A few places that are common:

• IRP – this is a key part of the speaking assessment and she needs to have really done her research, she needs to provide an excellent IRP form with headings and detail, so that the examiner can direct the questions to those areas – and then she needs to prep excellent detail for answers to those questions.
• Also for the speaking, work on the topic is very important – reading round it, prepping some good stats, practising model answers to see what kind of thing she needs to cover.
• The other biggie IMHO is the main reading and listening paper; here there are big marks to be won on the summaries, so what kinds of marks is she getting on those in practice tests? If they are not high, that’s a relatively easy win.

Happy to answer any specific questions she has but also ask her teacher what she needs to do? Where is she falling down?

If you are in London: https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/french-courses/gcse-alevel-revision/#/ My daughter took their GCSE prep course. She first hated me for signing her up, but then ended up loving the course.

You can find French native speaker tutors on Preply who offer lessons at very affordable rates. You will need to guide on them on what to study with her though.

@clary - this is so helpful and yes we came to a similar conclusion (eyewatering) cost vs value not quite adding up. I need to get into this with her, but hard to navigate with a teen. These are all really good things to probe. Her feeling is that her vocab is lacking and she still needs to work on grammar, I think.

IRP we are discussing right now so your tips are super helpful. This mock seem only to have been a reading and listening paper and she got 69/90 which is actually 77% - but I need to check the grade boundaries.

Thank you for the offer of help, you have given me some pointers here already, so I will begin with those. If she doesn't ask her teacher, we will ask again at parents evening.

@onlytherain a native speaker would be really helpful. Thank you for the link

OK well learning vocab is a total bind but there is no easy way round it. The good news is that there is still a good chunk of time even until the speaking assessment (probs in April) and it is a fairly straightforward win (as long as you make the effort). Vocab lists on topics covered should be to hand in her text book. She can make lists of words she needs, which does she know, then learn the others. Do 10 a day or 25 a week or whatever will work.

"Grammar" is a bit vague; where is she not secure? Verbs and tenses? Use of subjunctive? Idiomatic phrases? Adjective agreements? If she can drill down a bit then that will help.

What is she thinking for her IRP? Remember it can be on one of the topics studied if that is really engaging (like the rise of the far right in France – nice meaty one).

Re a native speaker – while that's a great idea you need to be sure they are also an expert in the A level spec she is taking. I have seen a number of students come a cropper through working with a native speaker who didn't really know what the student needed to know and show they knew (more for GCSE tbf).