Magnifique! French teacher Sandra Kasparek is an award-winner

Sandra Kasparek teaches extracurricular French classes to local children, through the award winning La Jolie Ronde programmes, at local nurseries, primary schools and open centres in the Livingston, Bathgate, Armadale, Broxburn and Falkirk areas.

Sandra was honoured with the much acclaimed La Jolie Ronde Licensee of the Year Award for Scotland and the North of England.

It was also a double celebration for Sandra as she was also presented with her 10-year Service Award.

On finding out that she had won this award at La Jolie Ronde’s Annual Conference, Sandra said: “I’m so delighted to have been presented with this award.

“It’s an honour to be rewarded for my teaching as it’s something I just love to do. So to win this award means a lot and the hard work I have put into developing my business, over the last 10 years, has been recognised which is truly fantastic.”

Sandra was born in France and her passion for languages was first sparked early on at primary school where she was taught both English and German. She loved how other languages sounded and was fascinated with different cultures.

Sandra carried on her enthusiasm at secondary and afterwards travelled around many countries, including Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Greece and Israel soaking up the different cultures.

In 1992, Sandra had the chance to study at Napier University in Edinburgh, where she studied for a degree in export and languages. After graduating she worked in customer services for various manufacturing companies using her language skills.

Sandra eventually settled in Livingston with her French husband and two young sons.

As time passed Sandra found it increasingly difficult to juggle family life and work and, in 2008, started looking for opportunities where she could still use her languages that would also fit around the school run and family commitments.

She came across a role with La Jolie Ronde Languages for Children which was looking for a French speaker to take over existing classes within a business that was already set up. Sandra applied and has never looked back.

As word got around how good Sandra’s classes were and that learning French was actually fun, she was subsequently contacted by many parents wanting their children to learn French, as well as calls from other local primary schools and nurseries.

Today Sandra runs a successful and flourishing business, teaching La Jolie Ronde French to around 200 pupils a week across Livingston, Bathgate, Armadale, Broxburn and Falkirk.

General manager for La Jolie Ronde, Steve Baker, said: “We look forward to working with Sandra for many years to come.”