Hosting an exchange student has been something that was on our radar for the past year, after my eldest son was introduced to the exchange program at his school. For the past 24 years, our school has hosted 40 students from its Japanese sister school for a homestay exchange – what has got to be one of the longest homestay exchange programs running on the Gold Coast! (fun fact: I attended the same school as my children, and my family hosted a student in the first year of the exchange!) This year, when the call came for families to host, we put our hands up and got involved in a very rewarding experience as part of this cultural exchange. I thought I’d share some of our experiences and tips on what to do with your student, for anyone who might be considering hosting a student of their own sometime.
The exchange program
Our school coordinates our exchange program, and it is always for 2 weeks with Junior Highschool students (aged 15yrs) from our sister school in Japan. This year, they had approximately 80 students apply to come to Australia, and following an interview and selection process they got it down to 45 students. The students are here to learn conversational English and immerse themselves in the Australian lifestyle. The Japanese students attend our school each day, with integration opportunities with our students, as well as special ESL lessons. In 2025, we had 1 weekend to spend with our students, plus 2 weeks of evenings.
Requirements
Firstly, all adults living in the house must have a Blue Card. Our school coordinated this process for us. Further to this, you must be able to provide them with a bedroom of their own. They may share a bathroom. We provided all meals, and covered all expenses incurred during their stay with us. We did receive a host family payment to assist with these costs. The ages of our children didn’t matter – a number of primary school families played host to the Japanese students. The gender of the Japanese student was matched to the host family students (eg. A family with all female children would receive a female student, a family with male and female children would generally receive a student with the gender matching the eldest student where possible).
Experiences
The Japanese students participated in school-organised excursions to South Bank, Brisbane City, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Westfield Coomera and Yatala Pies. This was helpful for host families, as we only had 2 full days with the students we could focus on other areas of interest knowing they had already ticked off the big things like touching a koala and feeding a kangaroo!
We came up with a few ideas and then asked our student what he wanted to do and see. Everyone will definitely have their own interests so we thought this was important to have his input rather than choosing for him!
Beach experience: we spent one day doing all things beach related. We started at Broadbeach (following Cyclone Alfred, the beach at Surfers Paradise is pretty sad looking, so we decided Broadbeach was the next best tourist spot), where we walked along the beach, watched the social Beach Volleyball club playing and walked by the surf life saving club. We then drove along the Esplanade to Q1 at Surfers Paradise and went up to Skypoint for views over the Gold Coast. [Hot tip: Dreamworld pass holders are free to visit, check out the Experience Oz website for discounted tickets for international visitors!]. Next we drove up to Ian Dipple Lagoon at Labrador, where we had Charis Seafood fish & chips for lunch by the water. At 1.30pm daily, there is Pelican Feeding at the lagoon and our student loved watching this.
Bush experience: we offered a rainforest or bush experience for our 2nd day with the student, and he chose bush. I’ll list what our rainforest plans were below. We were fortunate that Summer Land Camel Farm was holding a bush festival on the day we visited, so there were lots of things for us to do here. On a regular day, I would still visit Summer Land Camels where you can feed the camels and go on a camel ride. You can also taste camel milk ice cream! For extra ideas, visit Scenic Rim Farm Shop for a beautiful countryside lunch location. Drive back through Boonah and Beaudesert for a true countryside view.
Rainforest experience: our plans for a rainforest experience were to visit O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat and do the free treetop walk. You can also do bird feeding here. Mount View Alpacas and O’Reilly’s Canungra Valley Winery are on the drive out here and would make fun stops for an Alpaca walk and picnic lunch by the river.
Other ideas:
- Curtis Falls walk
- Tamborine Botanic Gardens
- Tamborine Mountain Gallery Walk
- Pacific Fair
- HOPO Ferry Gold Coast canals
- Point Danger (Qld/NSW border)
- Coombabah Wetlands (kangaroos)
- Daisy Hill Koala Centre
Activities
Making the most of our time together, lots of families made time for some fun activities during the weeknights. Here are some ideas that proved popular:
- Putt-putt
- AFL
- ArtVo
- Bowling
- Arcade
- TopGolf
- City Cat
- Yatala Drive in Cinema
- Aquaduck
Homestay experiences
A large part of the homestay experience is to immerse the students in the Aussie way of life. There were plenty of fun ideas for making the moments at home fun and a cultural experience!
- Baking ANZAC biscuits
- Fire pit toasting marshmallows
- Cooking the BBQ
- Taste testing Aussie foods like Tim Tams, Shapes, Milo, Vegemite, lamingtons, Caramello Koalas and meat pies
- Backyard cricket and footy games
Our experience
This was our first homestay experience and I’m pleased to say we enjoyed it and will be putting our hands up again next year! Our student was very quiet and studious, which did make the experience a little more difficult than some of those families who had students that were more outgoing. But every year will serve up a different personality and it’s all part of the experience! While we tried to communicate in English most of the time, we did have to use Google Translate when communicating more important or lengthy messages to ensure there was no communication breakdown. Our student was very nervous about using his English, but over the two weeks did come out of his shell and started to speak to us a bit more. Our kids loved having a student stay with us, and it really wasn’t much extra work when you’ve already got kids to deal with!
