There’s a particular challenge in planning excursions for secondary students that primary school teachers don’t face in quite the same way.
Older students are harder to impress. They’ve been on excursions before. They know when something is genuinely engaging and when it’s been chosen because it was easy to organise. The Year 10 who’s visibly unimpressed by lunchtime, the Year 12 group that fractures into friendship clusters the moment supervision relaxes, the student who checks out entirely because the activity doesn’t require anything from them — these are the outcomes every secondary school coordinator is trying to avoid.
Urban Quest’s secondary school CBD excursion was designed specifically with this dynamic in mind. Not as a modified version of a primary school activity, but as an experience built from the ground up to engage secondary students — including the reluctant ones. Full details of the program are on our school excursions Melbourne page.
Here’s what it looks like in practice, told through the schools that have done it.
What Happens on a Secondary School Urban Quest
Teams of five to six students navigate Melbourne’s CBD using their own smartphones, guided by Urban Quest’s custom game platform. The platform delivers a sequence of challenges — cryptic clues, augmented reality tasks, multi-part riddles, real-world navigation problems — that require genuine collaborative thinking to solve.
Every challenge requires the whole team. There’s no task that one capable student can complete while the others watch. The platform tracks each team’s performance throughout the event, with results calculated and announced at the final debrief and prize ceremony. The competitive element is what drives the engagement — teams who fall behind work harder to catch up, teams who are winning push harder to stay ahead.
The excursion starts and finishes on the steps of the State Library of Victoria — directly opposite Melbourne Central Station and State Library Station, which makes arrival straightforward for school groups travelling by public transport from anywhere across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Urban Quest’s host manages the entire experience from briefing through to the debrief and prize ceremony. Teachers are free to watch, join a team, or simply observe — no facilitation required from school staff on the day.
The full excursion runs approximately 2.5 hours, including briefing and wrap-up.
What Secondary Students Actually Experience
Year 12 Students — The Pre-Exam Reset
For Year 12 cohorts, Urban Quest works as a genuine reset — a structured break from the intensity of VCE that still feels purposeful rather than frivolous. Teachers who’ve brought Year 12 groups consistently report the same thing: students arrive stressed and competitive in the wrong way, and leave reconnected.
Students from Cranbourne East Secondary College — a Year 12 group — described their experience in a way that captured this well. Their interview stands out for how specifically they articulated what the experience produced.
Read the full Cranbourne East College case study →
Nazareth College’s Year 12 students had a similar experience — pushing each other to think differently under time pressure in a way that their normal school environment rarely creates.
Read the full Nazareth College case study →
Waverley Christian College’s Year 12 cohort from the Narre Warren campus produced one of the clearest articulations of what Urban Quest demands from older students:
“You have to think outside the box — some clues look simple, but you really have to think about them.”
And on the navigation experience:
“If you’re going to run, make sure you’re running in the right direction.”
That second observation — made by a student, not a facilitator — captures exactly what Urban Quest produces in secondary students: the discipline to slow down and think strategically rather than act impulsively. It’s a transferable skill that teachers notice carrying back into the classroom.
Read the full Waverley Christian College case study →
Koo Wee Rup Secondary College’s Year 12 group brought a regional perspective — for students who don’t regularly visit Melbourne’s CBD, the combination of city navigation and competitive challenge produced a level of engagement their teacher described as unlike anything they’d seen from a standard excursion.
Read the full Koo Wee Rup Secondary College case study →
Years 9 and 10 — The Social Cohesion Year Level
Years 9 and 10 are where social dynamics in secondary schools are at their most complex. Friendship groups are entrenched. The gap between engaged students and disengaged ones is often at its widest. An excursion that doesn’t actively disrupt existing social clusters tends to reinforce them rather than build anything new.
Urban Quest’s team allocation deliberately places students with peers they don’t normally work with. The competitive pressure of the experience then does the rest — students who wouldn’t ordinarily seek each other out find themselves relying on each other’s different thinking styles to solve challenges neither could crack alone.
Williamstown’s Years 8, 9, and 10 cohort demonstrated this particularly well. Their teacher’s perspective on what the experience produced for students across those year levels — including how it handled the range of engagement levels typical of a mixed secondary group — is one of the most detailed teacher assessments Urban Quest has received.
Read the full Williamstown case study →
Baimbridge College’s Years 9 and 10 group came from a regional Victorian school — a cohort where city navigation was an additional layer of challenge on top of the Quest itself. Their teacher’s observations about how students responded to the unfamiliar urban environment are worth reading in full.
Read the full Baimbridge College case study →
Blackburn High School’s Years 10 and 11 students tackled the CBD experience with a competitive energy that their student interview captured vividly. One student summed up what the experience produced socially:
“It’s always nice to have more friendly faces around school, and it’s amazing how this experience brought us all closer together.”
Read the full Blackburn High School case study →
Point Cook College’s Year 9 cohort is among the youngest secondary groups Urban Quest regularly runs. Their student interview is a useful counterpoint to the Year 12 case studies — it demonstrates that the challenge calibration works across the full secondary range, not just for older students.
Read the full Point Cook College case study →
What Teachers Say The Experience Produces
Across the secondary school case studies Urban Quest has published, four outcomes appear consistently regardless of year level.
Students are seen differently by their peers. The student who doesn’t engage in class might be the one who cracks the critical puzzle under time pressure. The Year 12 who seems disengaged might be the one who naturally leads their team through the final challenge. Urban Quest’s format is deliberate about this — the range of challenge types ensures that different cognitive strengths are useful at different moments, so no single student type dominates.
Social barriers between year levels drop. For excursions that bring mixed year-level cohorts together, the competitive team format accelerates the social mixing that would otherwise take months of shared classroom time to produce.
The CBD itself becomes part of the learning. For students — particularly from regional schools or outer suburbs — navigating Melbourne’s CBD confidently is a genuinely valuable skill. Urban Quest’s excursion builds this through the experience rather than through instruction. Students who’ve successfully navigated the CBD for 2 hours with their team carry a different relationship with the city than those who’ve only visited on a guided bus tour.
The experience generates content for classroom reflection. Urban Quest’s debrief at the end of the experience gives teachers ready-made discussion prompts: which decisions sped your team up?
When did communication break down?
What role felt natural to you?
These connect directly to the Personal and Social Capability strand of the Victorian Curriculum — specifically the Relationships and Diversity sub-strand covering teamwork, communication, and self-awareness.
Large Secondary Groups — What’s Possible
Urban Quest’s secondary school excursions scale to group sizes that most excursion providers can’t manage without splitting the experience into separate days.
For groups up to 250 students, the standard format runs from the State Library of Victoria — start, finish, and briefing all in one central location, directly opposite Melbourne Central Station.
Melbourne High School brought 250 Year 10 students for a single-day excursion using this format — one of the largest single-year-level groups Urban Quest has run at the standard State Library location.
For groups of 300 or more, Urban Quest uses RMIT University’s Alumni Courtyard as the alternative start and finish point — a larger, purpose-designed outdoor space that handles bigger groups without the logistics complexity of splitting the cohort (RMIT venue hire fees apply).
St Kevin’s College brought 280 Year 11 students to RMIT for their excursion. The scale of that event — captured in the video reel below — is the clearest demonstration of what’s possible for large secondary cohorts.
For very large groups — 350 students and above — Urban Quest can run the excursion in Melbourne’s parks rather than the CBD street circuit. Emmaus College brought 350+ Year 9 students to Fitzroy Gardens for exactly this format — an outdoor park-based experience using the same platform and challenge structure as the CBD excursion, scaled to a group size that the CBD circuit couldn’t absorb.
The Weather Question for Secondary School Excursions
Melbourne’s weather is unpredictable throughout the school year, and it’s the most common practical concern secondary school coordinators raise when planning a CBD excursion.
Urban Quest’s answer is Black Friday — the fully indoor version of the CBD experience, set within Melbourne Central and Emporium shopping centres. The format is identical to the outdoor excursion: same smartphone-guided platform, same challenge structure, same competitive team format. If the forecast turns on the morning of your excursion, Urban Quest switches the group to Black Friday at no extra cost and with no rebooking required.
☀️ Weather contingency: All secondary school CBD excursion bookings include Black Friday as a same-day weather backup. No rebooking, no additional cost, same experience.
Practical Information for Secondary School Coordinators
Year levels: Urban Quest secondary school excursions are calibrated for Years 7 through 12. Challenge complexity is adjusted for the year level booked — a Year 7 group receives different challenges to a Year 12 group, even when running the same format on the same day.
Start and finish: State Library of Victoria for groups up to 250. RMIT Alumni Courtyard for groups of 300 or more (RMIT booking fees apply — Urban Quest manages this directly). Fitzroy Gardens for groups of 350+, where a park-based format suits better.
Duration: Typically 2.5 hours, including briefing, gameplay, debrief, and prize ceremony.
Devices: Students use their own smartphones. Urban Quest’s platform requires no app download — students access it via a web link provided at the briefing.
Teacher supervision: Urban Quest’s host manages the entire experience. Teachers are not required to facilitate anything on the day. The host-to-student ratio is managed by the platform — one experienced host can run an excursion for 350+ students simultaneously.
Booking lead time: Terms 1 and 4 book out quickly — particularly October and November. Urban Quest recommends booking 6-8 weeks in advance for peak periods. Terms 2 and 3 have more availability and are well-suited for mid-year cohesion events or pre-exam resets.
Risk assessment and documentation: Urban Quest provides comprehensive risk assessment documentation and excursion paperwork on request. All facilitators hold current Working With Children Checks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Urban Quest suitable for reluctant or disengaged secondary students?
Yes — and this is where the format earns its reputation most clearly. The competitive team structure and the variety of challenge types mean that students who disengage from traditional classroom activities often find a role in the Quest that they don’t in other settings. Urban Quest facilitators are experienced at reading group dynamics and adjusting the energy of the briefing to bring reluctant participants in from the start.
Can we specify which students are grouped together?
Yes — teachers put teams together on their end 2-3 days before the event. Urban Quest recommends allocating teams randomly or strategically rather than by friendship group — this is where the social development value comes from. If there are specific student welfare considerations that require certain students to be separated or kept together, discuss these at the planning stage, and Urban Quest will accommodate them.
Do students need to know Melbourne’s CBD?
No. The platform guides students through the route — they don’t need prior knowledge of Melbourne’s streets or landmarks. For regional students visiting the city for the first time, the navigation element of the experience is an additional layer of genuine learning rather than a barrier.
What is the cost for secondary school excursions?
Contact Urban Quest for a school-specific proposal. Pricing is based on group size, and Urban Quest provides a proposal within 24 hours of enquiry.
Explore Urban Quest school programs →
Learn more about Urban Quest CBD school excursions →
Read about Urban Quest school incursions → for on-campus alternatives that don’t require travel to the CBD.
Urban Quest has delivered secondary school CBD excursions for schools across Victoria including Melbourne High School (250 Year 10 students), St Kevin’s College (280 Year 11 students, RMIT), Emmaus College (350+ Year 9 students, Fitzroy Gardens), Waverley Christian College, Nazareth College, Cranbourne East Secondary College, Koo Wee Rup Secondary College, Blackburn High School, Williamstown, Baimbridge College, Point Cook College, and many more.
