French Curriculum Tutor in China: maths and science online, Beijing to Hong Kong

Lycee francais international Charles-de-Gaulle de Pekin

Beijing, Chaoyang district

Levels: Pre-school to Terminale, 15 accredited year groups

Directly run by the AEFE, around 800 students, founded in 1965

Lycee francais de Shanghai

Shanghai, Qingpu and Yangpu campuses

Levels: Pre-school to Terminale, 15 accredited year groups

Under agreement with the AEFE, around 1,500 students across the two campuses

Lycee francais international Victor-Segalen

Hong Kong, Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley

Levels: Pre-school to Terminale, 15 accredited year groups

A French track and an international track leading to the IB diploma, across several sites

Lycee francais international de Canton

Guangzhou, Jinshazhou district

Levels: Pre-school to Terminale, 15 accredited year groups

Open since 1997, a trilingual path in French, English and Mandarin

French programme at QSI International School of Shenzhen

Shenzhen, Shekou

Levels: Kindergarten to college, the college years in partnership with the CNED

Accredited programme and AEFE partner since 2024, Brevet preparation

Ecole francaise internationale de Wuhan

Wuhan

Levels: Pre-school to CM2 accredited, Cinquieme to Troisieme with the CNED

A very small structure, around twenty students, taught in local partnership

Finding a teacher who knows the French syllabus, not the local one

This is difficulty number one, and it is structural. The tutoring market in China is enormous, but it is calibrated on the gaokao and on English-language international programmes. A teacher who is excellent at mathematics will teach methods that match neither the progression of the speciality, nor the format of the paper, nor what a French marker expects to see written. Families often end up paying a lot for support that confuses the student rather than helping.

The step from Seconde into the speciality

In a school with small lycee cohorts, the speciality choice is made quickly and sometimes without a safety net. A student who takes the Mathematics speciality with shaky algebraic reflexes is in trouble by the chapter on sequences, and the repair can no longer happen inside class hours. It is the most frequent reason families get in touch in Premiere.

The write-up, more than the calculation

Students schooled in China, often trilingual and very strong at calculation, lose marks on written justification: an induction badly set up, a theorem applied without checking its hypotheses, a missing conclusion. The Baccalaureate mark scheme pays for that written reasoning as much as for the result. It is specific work, and it is the work that earns the most marks by the end of the year.

French-language resources

From China, a student struggles to find corrected exercises in French at the right level, while their peers in France have them everywhere. The site provides a complete bank of corrected sets and revision sheets, free, with no sign-up and no download: everything reads in the browser.

Leaving, arriving, going back

Expatriate families in China move. A posting mid-year, an early return to France, a move from Shanghai to Singapore or Montreal cuts the academic follow-up at the worst possible moment. An online tutor follows the student through the move: only the time of the session changes.

1. A first exchange to frame things

By email, which gets through everywhere, or by WhatsApp. We establish the school, the level, the specialities, the local calendar and what is actually going wrong, then fix the weekly slot from Beijing time.

2. A shared whiteboard on Teams and OneNote

The student and I write at the same time on the same page, exactly as on paper. These are the tools already used in the French lycees of the network, so there is nothing new to install or learn.

3. A session that survives an imperfect connection

The digital notebook is written during the session and stays available afterwards. If the video drops we continue on audio over the shared board, and I send the complete page at the end. No session is lost to the network.

4. Support between sessions, included

A question the night before a graded test, a photo of a problem they are stuck on: the student writes, I answer. With 12 or 13 hours of difference the reply often arrives during the Chinese night and is waiting when they wake. At no extra charge.

5. Homework under real conditions

Past papers from the Asia zone, timed, sent back as photographs then marked against the official scheme. It is the only reliable way to know where the student stands before the examination, and it is what a small school most often lacks.

Do you tutor students at the French lycees in China?

Yes, from Sixieme to Terminale. Beijing, Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong all follow the official French syllabus, exactly the one I have taught for more than 10 years in Montreal. Nothing needs adapting.

Which time slot works between China and Montreal?

The student's evening falls in my morning. China is at UTC+8 and never changes clocks; the gap with Montreal is 13 hours in winter and 12 in summer. A session at 8 pm in Beijing is 7 am in Montreal in winter and 8 am in summer, an ordinary weekday slot on both sides.

Which Baccalaureate papers will my child sit?

The Asia centre papers, written and published separately. The speciality papers run over two days, giving two papers per speciality each session. Practice is done on those past papers, not on metropolitan ones.

My child does college with the CNED, can you help?

Yes, and this is where online tutoring changes the most. Without a teacher in front of them, the tutor fills that role: explaining before the exercise, correcting the write-up, holding the pace of assignments and stopping a term of backlog from building.

How do we pay from China or Hong Kong?

By PayPal, in your own currency, or by Interac transfer for families with a Canadian bank account. Sessions are paid afterwards or in blocks, and a receipt is provided on request.