It’s been a tough couple of years for high school graduates across Australia. Learning from home, cancelled school formals and exams with the added stress of the Covid-19 pandemic have made their last year of school a challenge. That’s why schoolies is this week’s Word of the Week.
Schoolies is a week or so of holiday taken by Year 12 students after their final exams. Surfers Paradise on Queensland’s Gold Coast is the most popular destination but during schoolies week you’re likely to see recently graduated high school students taking over many popular beachside towns. Around Perth, schoolies is known as leavers week.
Being such a raucous week, schoolies has given rise to other slang words. A frogger is a volunteer representative of Red Frogs Australia, an organisation established to provide protection and guidance to young people gathered together in social situations in which they may be at risk, in particular from alcohol and drug use. You’re likely to see plenty of froggers around Surfers Paradise.
A toolie is a young male who is older than the school leavers who gather for schoolies week, but who joins them in pursuit of sex. Have fun school leavers and stay safe!
Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.
