Our chaotic crew are back, aka season 3 of Heartbreak High is available on Netflix. All episodes of the third, and final, season dropped on the 25th of March.
Watching Heartbreak High basically comes with the acceptance that you’ll understand about half of what’s going on. The cast speaks a completely different kind of English to us in the UK, flinging around words like ‘eshay,’ ‘munted,’ and ‘povvo.’ Some of these get explained, and others are just left hanging for us to nod along and accept. We see the crew engage in a ‘Cuckoo,’ and we hear them call everything “cooked.”
Are we old, or just British?
But one word in particular had us Brits scratching our heads: ‘Schoolies.’ It pops up towards the end of season 3, when our beloved crew head off for what’s clearly meant to be a major rite of passage. Sorry, what?
The term is thrown around repeatedly, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world, and it clearly plays a huge role in the show. In fact, almost an entire episode takes place at this so-called ‘Schoolies.’
So for the rest of you who were as confused as we were, here’s the lowdown: what exactly is ‘Schoolies’… and what would we call it here in the UK? Let’s dig into the madness.
ELISE LOCKWOOD/NETFLIX
What is ‘Schoolies’?
‘Schoolies’, also known as ‘Schoolies Week’, is a traditional week-long holiday for Australian high school graduates to celebrate the end of their Year 12 exams, usually taking place in late November or early December.
I know, you’re probably a little confused, but bear with me. The Australian school year runs with the calendar year, rather than summer-to-summer like in the UK. That’s because their summer is our winter — gotta love geography. Plus, Aussie students graduate at the end of Year 12, whereas we finish after Year 13.
Johan Platt /Netflix