Italian Lessons in Peterborough

Peterborough’s Italian community arrived in the 1950s for the Fletton brickworks and never left – the city remains one of England’s most Italian places. Reconnect with the family language in live online lessons with a native Sicilian teacher.

Looking for an Italian tutor in Peterborough? Lessons are one-to-one over Microsoft Teams, tailored to you — complete beginner, GCSE revision, holiday Italian or reconnecting with the family language. As a private Italian tutor I charge £30 an hour, with no travel time and no course-book padding: we spend the whole lesson actually speaking.

Learn Italian from anywhere in the UK with live online lessons taught by Laura — a native Italian speaker from Sicily with over 20 years’ teaching experience, fully qualified with QTS, a PGCE and the Cambridge CELTA.

How online lessons work

• Live video lessons — real conversation with a real teacher, not an app
• One-to-one tuition — £30/hour, scheduled around you, Monday to Friday
• Small group courses — £15 per 1.5-hour session, 10-week terms from £150
• Interactive materials — custom resources, BookWidgets and Kahoot activities, all provided

Who they’re for

• Complete beginners building the foundations
• Improvers and returners who want structured conversation practice
• Students preparing for IB Diploma, GCSE or A-level Italian examinations
• Anyone with Italian family, travel plans, or a love of the language

Every lesson is tailored to your goals and level. As a specialist SEN-trained teacher, Laura is particularly experienced at supporting learners who find languages daunting — and at making every session genuinely enjoyable.

Ready to start? Get in touch for a free chat about your level and goals, or meet Laura in her welcome video — wherever you are in the UK.

“Laura is a great teacher — warm, friendly, knowledgeable and encouraging. I really like the style of the lessons with a combination of conversation and worked exercises.”
— Jess  Read all my Google reviews →

Peterborough’s Italian connection

Peterborough’s Italian story begins in the brickyards. From 1951 to 1957 the London Brick Company sent representatives to Naples every year, recruiting workers from the areas of highest unemployment in Sicily, Sardinia and southern Italy — about 3,000 men in all. Their families, many from Apulia and Campania, settled in Fletton and Woodston, close to the brickworks, and in 2020 a blue plaque was erected at the company’s former district offices to honour the community’s contribution.

The connection goes back much further, too: just west of the city stood Durobrivae, described as the largest of Roman Britain’s ‘small towns’, whose Nene Valley pottery is found across much of Roman Britain. Learning Italian here feels to me like continuing a very old conversation.

Common questions

Are lessons in Peterborough in person or online?

Online, over Microsoft Teams. I’m based in Gloucestershire, so my Peterborough students learn with me on screen — live, interactive lessons where we speak Italian from the very first minute. All you need is a laptop or tablet, a notebook and an hour a week.

How much do you charge for lessons?

One-to-one tuition is £30 per hour. My online beginners course — ten weeks, £150 all in — starts on Wednesday 16 September, 5.00 to 6.30pm, and is kept deliberately small so everyone gets my full attention.

My grandparents were part of Peterborough’s Italian community — can you help me reconnect?

Yes — and what a lovely reason to learn. Italians came to Peterborough in their thousands to work in the brick industry, and the community they built is still strong. If the language faded in your family, we can revive it together, word by familiar word.

Why does Peterborough have such a strong Italian community?

It began with the brickyards. From 1951 to 1957 the London Brick Company sent representatives to Naples each year to recruit workers from the areas of highest unemployment in Sicily, Sardinia and southern Italy, bringing about 3,000 Italian men to Peterborough. Families — many from Apulia and Campania — settled in Fletton and Woodston, and in 2020 a blue plaque was erected at the company’s former district offices to honour their contribution.

Nearby: Cambridge · Bedfordshire · Leicester