Lord Byng Secondary School

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Lord Byng Secondary School
Custos Morum
Address
3939 West 16th Avenue
Vancouver, British Columbia, V5R 3C9, Canada
Information
School number 03939038
School board School District 39 Vancouver
Superintendent T. Grant
Area trustee Sharon Gregson
Principal Maria Taddei
Vice principal Steve Cameron
Tim McGeer
Administrator Rita Nardi
School type Secondary school
Grades 8-12
Language English
Area West Point Grey
Team name Grey Ghosts
Colours Scarlet, Grey
Founded 1925
Enrollment 1205 [1] (March 2008)
Homepage http://byng.vsb.bc.ca/

Lord Byng Secondary School is a grade 8-12 school located in the West Point Grey neighborhood on the west side of Vancouver, British Columbia. The school officially opened in 1925 and was named in honor of The Lord Byng of Vimy, a hero of Vimy Ridge and the Governor General of Canada at the time.

Lord Byng Secondary School
Lord Byng Secondary School

The school was expanded in 2003 with a new library and gymnasium, as well as studios and classrooms. After being ranked the most vulnerable school to earthquakes in 2004/05, Lord Byng Secondary became the site of a seismic upgrade. Construction ended in the summer of 2005.

According to the annual Fraser Institute rankings, Lord Byng Secondary was ranked second-best public school in Vancouver. In 2006, Lord Byng achieved 1st place of all B.C. public schools in terms of provincial scores, scoring approximately an 84% average. When placed against private schools, Lord Byng placed third overall, ahead of several prestigious private facilities. Not only is this school strong academically, it also specializes in the arts. Byng's music program is considered one of the best in the Greater Vancouver Area.

In the 2005-2006 school year, Byng Art's Theatre Company and the school gained national attention for staging the play The Laramie Project after the Surrey School Board banned the play.[2]

Contents

[edit] Byng Arts Mini School

The Byng Arts Mini School is a program for above average students which places artistic development at the core of the high school experience through enrichment in the fine arts as well as academics. Traditionally, students have specialized in Visual Arts, Band, Strings, or Theatre, but options have expanded to include Literary and Media Arts.

The School offers an intensive program that is designed for students who wish to direct their energies and passions towards the arts, to work within a community of students who share their interests, and to maintain strong academic achievement.

The program promotes both academic and artistic excellence while fostering interdisciplinary awareness and individual creativity through curricular and extracurricular activities in the fine arts, literary arts and applied fine arts.[3]

[edit] Lord Byng Music Department

Under the direction of the Fine Arts department head, Scott MacLennan, Lord Byng has one of the best music programs in the Lower Mainland. Many of the groups, including the high-level Honours Orchestra and Senior Wind Ensemble, have consistently placed 1st/gold in provincial and national competitions (such as Kiwanis and MusicFest Canada). It offers a variety of programs, both in band and strings. Listed below are some of the classes that are currently offered:

  • Beginner Band
  • Junior Band
  • Intermediate Band
  • Senior Band / Wind Ensemble
  • Junior Jazz Band
  • Intermediate Jazz Band
  • Senior Jazz Band
  • Beginner Orchestra
  • Intermediate Orchestra
  • Senior Orchestra
  • Honours Orchestra
  • Symphony Orchestra
  • Choir
  • Junior Symphony Orchestra

Some of the notable band trips include Osaka, Japan (1970), Austria and Germany (2003), New York City (2005), Italy (2007), and England (2009).

[edit] Achievements

Lord Byng Secondary School received a rating of 9.2 out of 10 in the 2007 edition of The Fraser Institute's Report Card on Secondary Schools in British Columbia and Yukon. It ranked 13th out of the 291 schools ranked in the report card. As of 2006, Byng is tied with University Hill as the top overall ranked public school in the Lower Mainland.[4]

[edit] Lord Byng and Hollywood

  • Lord Byng's interiors were used for the hospital scenes. Its exteriors stood in for a fictional Harding High School in Wisconsin during the second-season premiere of Masters of Horror
  • Areas of the school were used in the filming of Hollow Man 2.

[edit] Notable Alumni

[edit] References

[edit] External links