Parlez-vous français? Fun French classes for young children and babies

Hundreds of children and their families in Warrington, St Helens and Wigan have learnt to speak a second language thanks to her fun French classes for babies, toddlers and pre schoolers and during lockdown she was inspiring people living on the other side of the world to learn a foreign language.

Here, in our latest Business of the Week feature, Andrea tells us how she launched Les Petits Pois Fun French eight years ago and why learning a second language is so important, especially at a young age.

If you would like to appear in one of our business features, email heidi.summerfield@newsquest.co.uk

Andrea started her business in 2015 and now has 15 classes for youngsters of all ages

What’s your full name?

Andrea Baker

What’s the name of the business?

Les Petits Pois Fun French

What’s the address?

We move around to community venues, nurseries and schools in Warrington and St Helens

Are you the owner/manager?

I’m the owner of Les Petits Pois Fun French

When did you open the business?

I founded the business in September 2015 after leaving a 10-year high school teaching career. Although I loved teaching and sharing my love of the French language, I found it so frustrating how oppositional the children were after the first year or so of high school. This was mainly down to them being introduced to language learning too late, and so they were finding making the sounds and acquiring the language too difficult. I also found the work life balance with two very young children really challenging and so Petits Pois Fun French was born. My mission was to share my passion for French with much younger children by opening their minds to the world around them at a very young age, and inspiring language learning. I also wanted to create a happy work-life balance around my family.

Has it always been in the same location?

When I first started, I just ran a toddler class at Whittle Hall Community Centre in Warrington, but it very quickly grew and evolved. Parents attending with their toddlers were asking if I’d run an after school session for their older children, which I started, and then due to demand I started running classes in St Helens, where I was brought up. The next few months saw me add baby sessions and I started to run classes in Wigan, and I also launched nursery sessions and school clubs. Before I knew it, I had three full, busy days with around 15 classes.

Andrea with franchisee Beth Hinds

Are you local to the area? Did you grow up here?

I grew up in St Helens and met my husband, who was from Warrington, at Carmel College. After living in St Helens together for seven years and having our two children, we moved to Chapelford in Great Sankey and we now live in Winwick.

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Tell me a bit about your business. What do you do? What services do you provide?

I run community fun French classes where parents, carers and grandparents can attend with their nought to eight-year-old. Classes are divided into three groups - baby and toddler (four to 18 months), toddler/preschool (18 months to four years) and after school fun (four to eight-year-olds). I also run weekly sessions at local nurseries and offer seasonal enrichment classes for local schools. In December, I did Christmas enrichment for Year Four at Chapelford Village Primary School, which was fantastic and it was great to see the children having so much fun with the language.

My other role in the business is as franchisor, after franchising the business during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. I now have two franchisees who are running their own Petits Pois Fun French businesses – Beth Hinds in south Warrington and Laura Roberts in Edinburgh. During 2024, I’m going to be taking a little step back from running classes to recruit more franchisees so we can share our passion. I’ll still be running lots of classes as it’s the best job ever, but will be slightly reducing my timetable.

Why did you decide to open your own business?

I actually went on the first ever primary French exchange when I was just nine and that was where my passion began. It’s vital that children are introduced early to spark that interest in languages, which will carry them through to high school and beyond. I’ve already got some amazing success stories of children I taught in my first few years who are now in high school, top of the class in languages and wanting to pursue a career using languages. That’s a job well done I’d say and all I’ve ever wanted!

Another reason I launched the business was to be more in control of the hours I worked and be around for the kids when they were little. I didn’t want to miss an assembly or show of theirs, which has been fantastic. However, at times it’s not been easy, especially during lockdown. I had to quickly change what I did and build a website. I spent my days creating online content - when not home schooling, of course. However, my hard work paid off and as lockdown continued and news of my online classes spread, hundreds of families who ordinarily couldn’t have joined my classes due to work or location, were able to enjoy the sessions. I even had people as far as Australia signed up, which I still find hard to believe.

What’s your business background?

I never actually set out to teach, but I had always worked with children. Even my high school work placement was at a school. After graduating with a French business degree, and spending my third year in France, working and studying, I was desperate to get back to France, so I got a job running children’s activities for visiting school children in the north of France. When I arrived, the French teacher had just left, and being the only fluent member of staff, they asked me if I’d take on the role. I had never taught, nor had I had any desire to teach at that point, especially when I was told the children could be young adults and not much younger than me. I went on to really enjoy the teaching, creating interactive quizzes for the children to complete at the local French market and fun team games in the classroom. When I came back to England, I got a job with an agency as a teaching assistant, working mainly with children with additional needs, and one of the schools I worked at was with children with emotional and behavioural disorders. The biggest thing I had feared with teaching were behavioural issues however I loved it, and after working there for a year, I realised that teaching was definitely for me, so I applied for the Graduate Teacher Programme and worked at St Gregory’s Catholic High School, where I became a qualified teacher. I then moved to OCA in Widnes where I was a French teacher for nine years.

Children love the games at Andrea's classes

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Why this type of business?

It had to be teaching based as that’s where my passion and strengths lie, and I’ll always want to share my passion for French with others. Plus working with little people is just incredible and I feel blessed to play a role in their early development.

Were you open before/during/after the Covid-19 pandemic? How did this affect your business?

Yes. So I started in 2015 and come 2020 business was great. Then Covid-19 hit and overnight I had to cancel all my classes. I was very quick to react and refused to let the children, who should have been attending my class the following day, miss out. Overnight, I created Facebook groups for each of my classes, sent out links to all the families with a list of props they could find around the house and then went live in the groups the very next day. It was terrifying and way out of my comfort zone and definitely challenged my IT skills too! I even started online adult classes during lockdown too, which was a wonderful way to socialise in those crazy times. Being at home more, although life was crazily busy, I managed to find time to work on franchising the business too, so that was something wonderful that came out of such a dark time.

What makes your business different to others in the same area/field? What sets your business apart from your competitors?

There isn’t really any competition locally for language classes, which is a shame as I think if more classes were available, more people would get involved and the love of languages would spread. Think of how many football clubs there are and they are always in demand.

What sets us apart from other children’s classes though is that our classes have the same kind of set up as other classes but with the added bonus of introducing young children to another language. We sing and dance with props, parachutes, have interactive stories, games, bubbles and crafts. Plus, I’ve created more than 100 original music tracks which are central to our sessions, and it’s through the music that the children and their families learn.

We also have our gorgeous mascots - Mr and Mrs Pea - who bring our classes to life. As well as introducing the children to French, my sessions incorporate the Early Years framework, such as numeracy, communication, listening etc, and I work hard to build those early skills, as well as working on their fine and gross motor skills through movement and crafts, and building their confidence.

Edinburgh franchisee Laura Roberts

Why do loyal customers return to your business?

I’m blessed that everyone that attends my classes loves them as much as me! I’m regularly told we are the best class around and the highlight of their week, and mums who find us near the end of their maternity leave say they wish they had found us sooner. Many grandparents bring their children when parents return to work as they don’t want them missing out. In fact, families continue to bring their children for years, and when they have another child, they start their new baby on their language loving journey too. I’m very lucky!

What’s next? What do the next few months hold for you and your business?

I’ll be supporting new franchisee Laura in Edinburgh plus I’ll be on the lookout for new potential franchisees who are passionate about teaching, ready to share their French skills with others and want to embark on an exciting adventure, where they get to choose when and how they work around their family. If that sounds like you, I’d love to hear from you!