What current GCSE French support needs to cover
Current AQA and Pearson Edexcel GCSE French specifications assess listening, speaking, reading and writing, with each skill worth 25% of the qualification. AQA’s current course is for teaching from September 2024 with exams from 2026 onwards, and Pearson Edexcel’s current specification lists first assessment in May/June 2026.
That makes good GCSE French tutoring more specific than general conversation practice. A tutor may need to work on role-play, read-aloud fluency, photo or picture discussion, listening accuracy, dictation, translation into English, translation into French, vocabulary recall and timed writing. In the AQA and Pearson materials reviewed, dictionary access is not something students can rely on in the exam, so lessons should build recall and accuracy under exam conditions.
The exam-board links below support the details in this section. If your child is with another awarding body or an international qualification, check the tutor profile or contact Latimer before assuming the same structure.
- Listening, speaking, reading and writing all matter
- Speaking support should include pronunciation and confidence
- Listening work can include dictation and careful audio review
- Writing and translation need accuracy under time pressure
- Listening
- Audio comprehension, dictation habits, recognising key information and coping with speed.
- Speaking
- Role-play, read-aloud confidence, picture or photo discussion, pronunciation and spontaneous answers.
- Reading
- Understanding texts, recognising high-frequency vocabulary and translating into English where required.
- Writing
- Translation into French, grammar accuracy, topic vocabulary, planning and timed open-response tasks.