After the Second World War some demobbed Royal Air Force pilots became English language teachers. As a result, much of the jargon and slang used in teachers’ rooms to this day has RAF origins. To help sprogs understand what the old lags are saying, here is a helpful guide.

bail out

Abandon a class before the lesson is over.

best blues

Smart clothes, for company classes and so forth.

Blighty

Britain.

bods

School personnel.

boffin

Technical chappie or geek, responsible for school computers and other equipment.

bolshie

A teacher who takes a dim view of school bull. (Also adjective.) That sprog Winifred sounds like a bolshie type to me.

brass hats

DOSes, Principals, Directors, Deans, etc etc.

brassed/browned off

Unhappy. Nobby’s been given the Toddlers’ class again and he’s pretty browned off.

briefing

A meeting at which DOS gives teachers instructions for a new course, etc.

buggers, silly, to play

Not take the job seriously.

bull

The formalities of teaching: sucking up to the school owner, meeting parents, performance appraisals, etc.

bumph

Paperwork.

civvy street

Life outside ELT. What did old Perkins do in civvy street?

clobber

Clothing and equipment needed for class.

CO

Commanding Officer, or Director of Studies.

dicey-do

A hair-raising lesson. That teenage class was a bit of a dicey-do.

dicky flight

A training lesson where an inexperienced teacher accompanies an experienced one.

duff gen

Inaccurate information. (Opposite of pukka gen.)

erk

Member of the school support staff: caretakers, receptionists, etc.

flak

Hostile questions or challenges from students. I took bags of flak from the Level 5s.

flap

Excitement and chaos. You’d better get weaving—there’s a flap on.

flying log

Lesson report written by teacher after class.

get some in

Advice to sprog teachers who think they know better than the old lags. From get some teaching time in. Example: Get some in, chum, before you start telling me how to teach IELTS Academic Writing Task 1.

gippy tummy

Diarrhoea. A hazard of teaching in foreign parts.

ground wallah

Non-teaching teacher, eg DOS, teacher trainer, projects manager. Also penguin. I see the ground wallahs have gone home already.

gubbins

Equipment for class. (See also clobber.) Got all
your gubbins?

jankers

Punishment for misbehaving teachers. Alfred was late for class again, so this week he’s on jankers.

LMF

Lack of Moral Fibre. Unwillingness or inability to go into class. I say, Cicely, I hope you’re not suffering from LMF.

mahogany Spitfire

Desk ’flown’ by penguins and ground wallahs (non-teaching DOSes, etc).

mess

School canteen.

NCO

Non-Commissioned Officer. Senior Teacher.

old lag

Experienced teacher.

Old Man, the

The DOS.

op

Operation, or lesson.

packet, catch a

To receive sustained attacks from the students (see also flak). Reggie hadn’t prepped properly, so by Jove he caught a packet.

penguin

See ground wallah.

piece of cake

An easy lesson to teach. Second conditional? Piece of cake, old bean.

prang

To hit your language target bang-on. Also a noun, as in wizard prang.

press on regardless

Persevere despite adversity (often ironic). OK, chaps, the photocopier’s broken down, the boffins are on strike, Agatha’s not back from her last sortie and the Wingco’s gone AWOL, so we’ll just press on regardless.

prune

A stupid or incompetent teacher. Originally a fictitious character in training manuals who did everything possible wrong.

pukka gen

Accurate information. (Opposite of duff gen.)

QBI

Quite bloody impossible (of teaching conditions).

scramble

Get into class as quickly as possible. Brass hats at 5 o’clock—scramble!

scrub

Cancel a lesson.

sortie

A trip by one teacher to an external class, eg at a company.

sparks

See boffin.

sprog

New teacher.

strip, tear off a

Reprimand.

theatre of operations

School’s catchment or target marketing area.

washed out, be

Fail as a trainee teacher.

weaving, get

Hurry up. Your class started 5 minutes ago, Postlethwaite, so get weaving.

Wingco

Wing Commander. Yet another name for the DOS.

wizard

Excellent. Bertie put on a wizard show and hit those Celta sprogs for six.