Mayflower College

Our courses for Aviation English Teachers are designed for English language teachers who are helping pilots / ATCO’s reach Operational Level 4 (and above). Course participants often include both native and non-native English speakers with varying levels of experience in teaching and aviation.

These courses focus on the teaching of “plain English” in an Aviation context, based on key language functions and domains.

Our next online course is the 16th - 20th March 2026.

Our courses for Aviation English Raters are designed to train participants to rate (assess) Aviation English performances according to the ICAO English Language Proficiency scale (‘the Descriptors’)

Our next online course is running on the 9th - 13th March 2026.

Expression of the week:

'Down to Earth'

MEANING: With no illusions or pretensions; practical and realistic.

USE: Even though he's very successful, John is really down to earth.

Expression of the week:

'To go bananas'

MEANING: To go crazy

USE: Andy went bananas when he heard that I had crashed his car

Expression of the week:

'Sucker punch'

MEANING: An unexpected blow.

USE: Raising the interest rate was a sucker punch to the economy.

Expression of the week:

"To throw in the towel"

MEANING: To give up or stop doing something. To admit defeat.

USE: Sometimes the difficulties appear too great and we just throw in the towel.

Expression of the week:

"To beat the odds"

MEANING: To succeed despite very low probability; to win an unlikely victory.

USE: Despite all his injuries, he beat the odds to win the Olympic Gold Medal.

Expression of the week:

'Dull as dishwater'

MEANING: Extremely dull or boring.

USE: The conversation was as dull as dishwater.

Today we say goodbye to one of our lovely Spanish groups!

We hope they have enjoyed their time with us at Mayflower College and have a safe journey home.

Phrase of the week:

"Child's Play"

MEANING: It’s such a simple and easy task, even a child could do it.

USE: If you’re not confident at cooking, I have a really simple recipe for tomato soup. It’s child’s play.

Happy Friday!

Here are some of our Romanian and Hungarian students enjoying a cream tea this afternoon. It is our Romanian students last day in college today - we hope they have enjoyed their 2 weeks with us and have a safe journey home this weekend (after visiting Padstow tomorrow!)

Next week we welcome 2 new groups from Spain - we look forward to welcoming them to Mayflower on Monday!