I have taught Italian on the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme at Redmaids’ High School, an independent GDST school in Bristol — preparing Years 12–13 students for their Italian examinations with structured syllabus coverage, intensive speaking practice, and pronunciation coaching to an excellent standard.
Exam support I offer (online, anywhere in the UK)
- IB Diploma Italian — syllabus-aligned tuition and exam preparation
- GCSE and A-level Italian — grammar foundations, past-paper practice, speaking exam confidence
- University and adult learners — exam resits, oral exam preparation
As a native speaker with Qualified Teacher Status, a PGCE and SEN training, I’m particularly experienced in supporting students managing exam pressure and anxiety through the demanding IB years.
What the Italian exams actually ask of you
Whichever board your school follows, GCSE Italian is examined across the same four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Most students are not equally strong in all four, and the marks are usually lost in one of them rather than spread evenly. The first thing I do is find out which one, because there is no point drilling vocabulary at a student whose reading is fine and whose speaking falls apart under pressure.
A-level and IB go further: longer writing, unseen texts, and an oral in which you are expected to hold an opinion rather than recite a prepared answer. That last part is where a native speaker genuinely helps. I can hear immediately whether something sounds like Italian or like English translated word by word, and I can tell you which of the two an examiner will hear.
The speaking exam
The speaking exam is the one students dread and the one that responds fastest to practice. We rehearse it properly: the photo card, the role play, the general conversation, with me asking the awkward follow-up question rather than the one you prepared for. You get used to being interrupted, to not knowing a word and going round it instead of stopping, and to keeping a tense going for a whole answer.
I also work on pronunciation, which carries more marks than students expect and is usually the quickest gain available. Double consonants, stressed syllables and the difference between e and è are small things that make a candidate sound markedly more fluent than they are.
For parents
Lessons are one to one, online, at £30 an hour, and arranged around school and revision rather than a fixed timetable. I have Qualified Teacher Status, a PGCE and SEN training, and I have taught in UK schools for more than twenty years, so I am used to working alongside a school’s scheme of work rather than against it — if your son or daughter brings me their class materials and their last assessment, that is the best possible start.
I will tell you honestly what I think is achievable in the time available. If a grade is out of reach I will say so, and if it is within reach I will tell you what it will take. Exam anxiety is common in the IB years in particular, and pacing the work matters as much as covering the syllabus.
Common questions
When should we start?
Earlier than most people do. Weekly lessons from the autumn give time to fix the foundations before revision starts; picking up in the spring means triage rather than teaching. That said, I take students at any point, including resits, and a short course of focused speaking practice before the oral is worth doing on its own.
Do you teach beginners sitting the exam late?
Yes. Adults returning to Italian for an exam, and students taking it outside school, are a regular part of my week. If you are starting from nothing rather than revising, ordinary one-to-one tuition is the better place to begin, and we can add exam work once the grammar is steady.
How do the lessons run?
On Microsoft Teams — I send a link, and it opens in a browser if you would rather not install anything. Notes and homework follow after each lesson so there is a record of what we covered. There is more on how online lessons work if you want the detail.
Get in touch — early booking recommended for the exam season.