Fourteen Cobden Technical School students are jetting off for the two-week adventure that will include a stint in Bali before the group will learn about everyday Indonesian life through living with host families and going to school.

Languages co-ordinator Liz Formby said students from years 8-10 were taking part in the trip, the first for the school in about two decades.

“This is the second year we’ve had Indonesian back at the school and we are setting up a sister school relationship with SMPN 5 in Yogyakarta,” she said.

Students from the SMPN 5 school visited Cobden last year, staying with many of the students who are heading over on this year’s trip.

“It will be a chance for them to catch up with their host brothers and sisters,” Ms Formby said.

It will be a very different experience for those involved – many of the students haven’t been on a plane before, let alone overseas.

“We go to Bali as a full group so we can get used to being overseas, because a lot of them haven’t even been on a plane before, then we fly across to Yogyakarta, which is in Java and we’re there for 10 days,” Ms Formby said.

Student Jazzie Negrello said learning about everyday life and working at an orphanage would be among the highlights.

“You can go for holidays over there but you don’t get the opportunity to really see what it’s like, go into schools and go into orphanages and things like that,” she said. 

“It’s good that we’ll actually get to learn about everyday life.”

Molly Hutt, whose mother was one of the last group from Cobden to take part in a student exchange, is most looking forward to seeing her host sister again, after she lived with the Hutt family on her exchange to Australia in 2015.

Ms Formby said it was hoped Cobden students would now head to Indonesia every second year, alternating with Indonesian students making the journey to Australia.