Students at Heathcote participate annually in two longstanding cultural exchange programs.
Blayney
Each year more than 100 of our students get together for three days with students from Blayney HS. They compete in friendly sporting competition and learn about the differences between city and country life.
This program was initiated in 1997 by Maureen ‘Dicko' Dickson (Blayney) and Phil Askew (Heathcote) after expressions of interest were sent to 100 or so State High Schools by Blayney. Heathcote was the only school to show interest in such a program. The program, organised and coordinated by Science teacher Mr Murray Dowling, involves the involvement of approximately 100 students from all years travelling to the sister school bi-annually. Blayney students will be travelling to Heathcote High school in 2015. It is essentially a sporting/cultural exchange where 'city meets the bush'. The program is a very popular one with both communities and a close bond has been established between the two schools.
Hitachi-Omiya, Japan
We also have in place a 15 year long linkage to schools in the Hitachi-Omiya district in Japan. Japanese students annually visit the school to take part in a range of new experiences, while every two years students from Heathcote have the opportunity to visit Japan as part of the exchange.