Le-Le Dang has watched four different cohorts of Year 12 VCE VM students take on Urban Quest’s Melbourne CBD school excursion, and no two groups have ever responded the same way. As the VCE VM Senior Sub-School Leader at Lyndhurst Secondary College, she returns each year with a single goal in mind: get students out of the classroom and into a real environment where teamwork is not a worksheet exercise but a lived experience they can reflect on afterwards.
This year’s cohort was the largest VM group Lyndhurst has brought to Melbourne’s CBD, drawn from three separate PDS classes that rarely interact. For most of the students, it was also their first real visit to the city.
Why Urban Quest Fits the VCE VM Curriculum
Le-Le explains that the connection between Urban Quest and the VCE VM curriculum is direct:
“Within our curriculum, we have a huge emphasis on teamwork, which connects really well with Urban Quest in their ability to host an Amazing Race where the school doesn’t have to come in to do all of the setup.”
The format itself does double duty. It builds the collaborative skills the VM curriculum requires, while also exposing students to an unfamiliar environment that many of them rarely encounter. “A lot of them might be seeing the city for the first time,” Le-Le notes.
Reflecting on a team member’s contribution is part of her students’ formal outcome task, which means the experience becomes assessable material — not just an excursion, but a structured opportunity to observe and report on how their team performed under pressure:
“The key experience we are hoping our students are able to develop today is that they’re able to demonstrate their teamwork ability, as well as the ability to reflect on another person, which is part of their outcome task.”
Largest Cohort Yet, and a Group With Its Own Personality
Every year’s group brings a different dynamic, and this year’s was no exception. Le-Le describes this cohort as more laid-back than previous years, with pockets of highly competitive students mixed in among a generally relaxed group. Despite being the largest VM cohort Lyndhurst has run through Urban Quest, the day moved smoothly — something Le-Le attributes to four years of familiarity with the format:
“Because we’re very familiar with them (Urban Quest) from last year, they know what to do, what to expect, as well as how to behave and how to engage as best as they can.”
That familiarity cuts both ways. Students arrive already understanding the expectations, and staff arrive knowing exactly how the day will unfold logistically — which matters when managing the largest group they’ve brought to date.
Bringing Three Classes Together for the First Time
One of the most consistent benefits Le-Le has observed across all four years is the social mixing the format forces. Students from three separate PDS classes were placed into teams together for the day — students who, under normal school circumstances, would have little reason to interact:
“It will probably be the chance to work with each other, because there’s three different PDS classes, so they don’t have a chance to often work with each other. They’re actually in groups of another class and another class.”
It’s a detail that speaks to one of the more understated strengths of the format: by mixing unfamiliar students into competitive teams, schools get a low-friction way to build connections across cohorts that timetabling alone rarely achieves.
A Real Step Outside the Classroom
For VM students specifically, much of the curriculum is built around practical, real-world application — and Le-Le sees Urban Quest as a direct extension of that philosophy:
“It takes them out of the classroom and they’re in a real-world environment where they’re having to navigate the public, as well as understand that teamwork doesn’t mean you just run ahead and leave everyone behind. It’s actually coming together to be together.”
That distinction — between finishing fast and finishing together — became a visible talking point on the day itself, with some teams reaching the end before the rest of their group. It’s exactly the kind of observation Le-Le plans to unpack with students once they’re back at school, turning a moment from the event into a teaching point for the reflection task ahead.
Augmented Reality as Part of the Appeal
Asked what students will likely talk about most, Le-Le points to the chance to work across classes — but the Augmented Reality element of the platform is also part of what makes the day land differently to a typical excursion. Navigating live AR clues through the CBD gives students a genuinely novel way to engage with technology in a real-world, competitive context, rather than in a classroom setting. For a cohort experiencing the city for the first time, that layer of interactivity adds to the sense that this is something different from a standard day out.
A Booking Process Built Around Flexibility
Asked how this excursion compares to others Lyndhurst has run with this year level, Le-Le is unambiguous about what makes it easy:
“This particular excursion is really easy because I don’t have to do much, apart from kind of get their consent and get them ready for the day. Everything is taken out of our hands and someone else is organising it.”
That ease extends to the logistics behind the scenes. Lyndhurst has needed to adjust booking numbers and timing more than once across four years working with Urban Quest, and Le-Le describes the process as consistently accommodating:
“Urban Quest, every year we’ve worked with them, have been really cooperative and really understanding, especially during the booking part where we had to delay multiple years in confirming numbers. They’re very flexible, and they’re always willing to understand our school’s context.”
That flexibility carries through to event day itself. Even when groups arrive later than planned, Le-Le notes that Urban Quest adjusts rather than compromising the experience:
“If we arrived late, they’re willing to cut it short a little bit, but to ensure that students still experience the same thing — whether they’re participating in a two-hour event or a one-hour event, it’s the same experience no matter what.”
Would Lyndhurst Recommend Urban Quest?
Le-Le’s answer leaves little room for ambiguity:
“I would one hundred percent recommend Urban Quest to other schools, because Urban Quest pretty much organises everything for you. It’s such a unique way for students to navigate the city in a productive environment, where they’re learning how to interact with the public, how to navigate, how to be a team, and how to lead each other as well.”
Four years in, with the largest cohort yet successfully through the program, Lyndhurst Secondary College shows no signs of stopping. Asked if she’ll be back next year, Le-Le doesn’t hesitate: “Most likely. We really like Urban Quest.”
Le-Le Dang is the VCE VM Senior Sub-School Leader at Lyndhurst Secondary College. Urban Quest delivered a Melbourne CBD school excursion for the school’s Year 12 VM cohort.
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