The conflict for teachers organising a school excursion is real. They’re often stressful to organise in the weeks leading up to it and while most kids are great on the actual excursion, there’s always one or two that make things more difficult than you would ideally like. But, they are a great way to engage the students and to give them a valuable disruption to the mundanity of the day-to-day school experience.
School excursions chart a path for new interactive, cultural experiences for school students. They get young minds out of the classroom and into national parks, tropical rainforests, museums, law courts, farms, and all sorts of places that stimulate a love of learning beyond the school desk.
Of course, school excursions are often limited by resources, budgetary restraints, and the need to align with the curriculum. Determining whether the excursion can engage students of all abilities is another important consideration.
EducationDaily is exploring a range of excursions. We’re starting with this list of thought starters for single day & overnight school excursions in the Brisbane area, but over the coming months we will build up a national list of school excursion “inspo” destinations.
Kayaking
Head to Brisbane River and immerse kids in a fun day on the water with a private guided kayaking tour. There’s a boatload of life lessons to learn on this popular school excursion, from individually registering and adhering to safety instructions, to working together as a team on the water. It’s a great physical workout to burn off steam after the bus ride and suitable for kids aged eight and upwards.
Riverlife Kayaking in Brisbane offer double kayaks to accommodate kids with special needs who may require additional supervision and they invite schools to “adventure with us during the day and head home to their own beds at night thanks to our convenient central location.”
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Walkabout Creek discovery centre
You’ll find the Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre at D’Aguilar National Park, the largest in Brisbane and home of the Enoggera Reservoir. The centre is run by Queensland government’s parks and forests division of the Department of Environment and Science and offers a WildEd program that specifically address elements of the curriculum.
Interested schools can contact the centre’s Education Ranger when arranging the excursion and customise each visit to fit with what’s being studied at school. Choose from the adventure of a self-guided tour exploring the parks walking tracks, the wealth of knowledge of a ranger-guided tour and a paddle on the reservoir, or spend time with the animals at the team’s Into the Wild wildlife discovery show.
Moreton Island
Moreton Island sits just off the coast of south east Queensland. It’s a popular choice for overnight school camps thanks to its protected sand dunes, dolphin feeding spots and sunken boat dive sites.
Trailblazer Tours offers schools the opportunity to do all of this, but in a fun-packed day tour for those who don’t want to commit the time, resources, or funds required for overnight stays. Perks include pristine beaches 40km away from Brisbane across Moreton Bay, for relatively remote experience, disturbed by the general population.
Trailblazer Tours offer two options for school excursions:
The Adventure Activities day tour
A cruise across Moreton Bay on the MICAT, a picnic lunch on the beach, guided shipwreck snorkeling, transparent kayaking, sandboarding and desert exploration amongst sandblows and lightning rock.
The Scenic Historical day tour
Get schooled on the history of Moreton Island in nature’s ultimate classroom with a tour of stunning and significant historical sites. Check out the World War 2 digs at Rous Battery, or try a 4WD across Middle Road. Learn about the Ngugi people and the fallout of the Tangalooma whaling operation, and enjoy visits to Cape Moreton Lighthouse and Blue Lagoon.
Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island)
Neighbouring Moreton island, ‘Straddie’ is the second largest sand island in the world, and a stunning location for an interactive lesson in Aboriginal culture.
This includes cultural workshops, adventure activities like kayaking, snorkelling, sandboarding, and surf safety awareness, plus an art gallery, North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum on Minjerribah, and a research centre. This excursion offers learning experiences in multiple unique settings that are an exciting and hands-on extension of the curriculum, for all school years.
The Indigenous cultural workshop program is a must for school excursions. Its purpose is to educate the community on the island’s rich cultural heritage and it’s run by Minjerribah-Moorgumpin Elder Aunty Margaret Iselin. She is quite listerally a voice for generations, tailoring her talks for all levels of school students, university students, and anyone else interested in truly understanding Aboriginal culture.
Facilities on the island include overnight accommodation, a surf life saving club, and catering, parking, and coach and ferry bookings as required.
State Library of Queensland
The library offers at least 11 customised tours for school excursions. One of the most intriguing is the ‘Artists’ books white gloves experience’. It’s better suited to senior students and a maximum of 15 can attend each 45-minute session, exploring the library’s collection with expert librarians.
The novelty may at first appear to be the donning of white gloves, but in reality it’s the opportunity to get up close and interactive with more than 1700 artist works, books, and sculptures from the library’s unique and expansive collection.
Brisbane Landfill
Schools on the hunt for eco-excursions that take environmental learnings off the page and into real life will be impressed with Brisbane City Council’s Towards Zero Waste Education Centre.
You’ll find it at the Brisbane Landfill site in Rochedale, educating school groups on how the landfill operates, sustainable waste management tips, and zero waste goals.
The excursion includes a talk and a coach ride through landfill tour which gives both teachers and students an opportunity to get up close and personal with the real life consequences of how much we purchase and consume, and what happens when we dispose of these items.
Discussion topics include recycling, organic waste, new innovations in waste management, gas capture, littering and e-waste.
This is a free school excursion for 10 to 70 people aged eight and over.
The Wheel of Brisbane
Mirroring the iconic London Eye, The Wheel of Brisbane offers unmatched 360 degree views of the city and beyond. The ride takes 10 to 15 minutes and includes guided audio and four spins and an extended stop at the top.
It can be a tool for teaching geography, meteorology, mathematics or environmental elements of the curriculum. It’s a fun end of term excursion or end of year activity, or it can be a fun add-on to Brisbane school excursions to museums, art galleries and more to end the day on a high note – 60 metres above ground.
The Brisbane Wheel is suitable for school children of all ages and gondolas can accommodate six to eight people depending on ages and chaperone requirements.
School excursion rates are available, teachers get a free information pack, and each student receives a complimentary keepsake map.
Escape room experiences
Escape rooms are a booming industry thanks to corporate uptake for team building activities. But they have plenty to offer the workforce of tomorrow, and the lessons can start right now, at school.
An escape room challenge requires people to be enclosed in a room where solving clues and deciphering codes and puzzles is the key to getting out. Rooms are typically themed and sections of the game subject to time limits, adding pressure for the teams working together to escape.
These experiences are challenging but not scary and benefits include building communication and problem-solving skills, better memory recall and retention, and improved relationships between teammates.
Escape Hunt in Brisbane host school excursions for their interactive escape game. There are six PG games in six rooms that can take up to six players at a time. The adventures feature pirate, Aladdin or Alice in Wonderland-style themes that range in complexity. They suit schoolchildren of all ages but are recommended for kids aged 10+.
The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium
Brisbane City Council facilitates planetarium programs for school excursions at The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium. Students can learn all about the universe at a choice of 11 planetarium shows, Cosmic Skydome, Display Zone, Sundial Courtyard, and the Earth: Our Blue Oasis exhibition.
The program is taught by astronomers and covers the motions of the day/night sky and the Solar System in close alignment with the Australian Curriculum. School excursion activity sheets can be downloaded before you arrive and teachers are given the answers so they can guide groups through answering questions covering Display Zone, Cosmic Skydome, the foyer and the gallery.
Cosmic Skydome is the jewel in the planetarium’s crown, with stunning overhead views that immerse the room in the Brisbane night sky with a “guided tour” of the solar system, stars, planets, and constellations visible on the evening of your visit.
The Skylore: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Astronomy exhibit is a space where Australia’s first astronomers share their star knowledge for the first time, continuing the tradition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders passing information, teachings and culture to younger generations.
