# Lord Byng Secondary School

Lord Byng Secondary School is a public secondary school located in the West Point Grey neighbourhood on the west side of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It opened in 1925 and was named in honour of the then Governor General of Canada, Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy. In 2003, the school expanded with the addition of a library, a gymnasium, and multiple studios and classrooms.

## Mini school program

The Byng Arts Mini School is a program for students that 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 Arts, Media Arts, and Choir.
The school offers a 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 academic and artistic excellence through curricular and extracurricular activities in the fine arts, literary arts and applied fine arts.

## Sports

Lord Byng sports clubs are named for their school mascot, the Grey Ghost. Lord Byng sports teams include Cross-country, Bantam Boys Rugby, Juvenile Boys Rugby, Bantam Girls Volleyball, Juv/Junior Girls Volleyball, Senior Girls Volleyball, Swimming, Girls Basketball, Bantam Girls Basketball, Juvenile Girls Basketball, Jr/Senior Girls Basketball, Boys Basketball, Bantam Boys Basketball, Juv/Junior Boys Basketball, Senior Boys Basketball, Bantam Boys Volleyball, Grade 8/Juvenile Girls Soccer, Senior Girls Soccer (Tier II), Girls Premier Soccer (Tier I), Tennis, Gymnastics, Ultimate, Girls Softball, Track & Field, Junior Boys Rugby, Senior Boys Rugby, Badminton, and Golf as well as inter-mural sports, such as hand-ball.
Some of their wins include their Cross Country team's Team Aggregate Championship award and the Grade 8 Boys Rugby City Championship for defeating Charles Tupper 15–12 in the finals. They also won the Tier II Senior Girls Basketball City Championships in the 2011–2012 season.

## Music

Under the direction of the Fine Arts department head, Scott MacLennan (succeeded by Lisa Lan), Lord Byng has one of the best music programs in the Lower Mainland. Many of the groups, including the high-level Senior Honour Orchestra and Senior Wind Ensemble, have consistently placed first or gold in provincial and national competitions.
Lord Byng's strings ensembles have won over 25 Kiwanis Festival Gold Awards (Provincial Competition) and three Gold Awards from the National Competition MusicFest. In 2008, the Senior Honour Orchestra won the trophy for first place in the North West Orchestra Competition in Portland, Oregon, and in 2010, both Junior and Senior Honour Orchestras received gold standing in the Heritage Music Festival in Seattle, Washington. The Senior Honour Orchestra were invited to compete in the 2012 American String Teachers Association National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta, where they placed second against advanced American school orchestras.
In April 2017, the Senior Honour Orchestra competed at World Strides Festival of Golds, California, along with dozens of other orchestras, bands and choirs in North America. They obtained 1st place out of all the other music groups. On May 5 of the same year, both the Senior Honour and a combination of Junior and Intermediate Orchestras competed at the Kiwanis Festival held at Douglas College. Both orchestras obtained 1st place in their respective divisions.

## Theatre

The Byng Arts Mini school student theatre company received national attention in 2006 when theatre students at the school staged the play The Laramie Project, which had been banned by the Surrey School Board for its "violence and profanity".

## In popular culture

* Students from the Symphony Orchestra were asked to play the accompaniment for the song "Wavin' Flag", a song written by K'Naan for the Haiti Relief Fund. This song features Canadian singers such as Avril Lavigne, Justin Bieber, Hedley, Josh Ramsay from Marianas Trench, Nikki Yanofsky etc. Lord Byng students took part in both the soundtrack and the music video recording in 2010.
* School's yards were used in the filming of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
* The school doubles as Rosewood High in Pretty Little Liars and Finnegan High in Mr. Young.
* School 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.
* Some students from the band and orchestra of the school were cast as extras in Marianas Trench's "Beside You" music video, which took place in the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia.
* Scenes from the movie Saving Silverman were filmed at the front of Lord Byng.
* School's interior and exterior were used for the Nickelodeon film Swindle.
* The 21 Jump Street episode "God is a Bullet" was filmed in 1989 at Lord Byng. It starred Johnny Depp, Peter DeLuise, Holly Robinson Peete, Dustin Nguyen.
* Exterior shots of Lord Byng were used as Riverdale High in Riverdale.

## Notable alumni

* Elizabeth Ball, Canadian politician, former Vancouver city councillor
* Grimes, Canadian musician
* Jay Worthy, Canadian rapper
* Joey Cramer, Canadian actor
* Dan Mangan, Canadian musician
* Terry Clarke, Canadian jazz drummer
* Tony Yu, Chinese singer
* Stan Douglas, Canadian installation artist
* Barry Downs, Canadian architect
* Allan Graves, Canadian-American bridge player, Senior World Bridge Champion, Canadian Bridge Hall of Fame
* Marcus Haber, Canadian soccer player
* Chris Haddock, Canadian screenwriter
* Cory Lee, Canadian pop singer
* Chris Mears, Canadian baseball player, former Major League Baseball player and Olympian
* Shaone Morrisonn, Canadian hockey player for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League
* Joyce Murray, Liberal MP for Vancouver Quadra
* Eric Nicol, Canadian writer
* Phil Nimmons, Canadian jazz clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and academic
* Carly Pope, Canadian actress, co-star of Young People Fucking
* Ross Rebagliati, Canadian snowboarder, first to win an Olympic gold medal for snowboarding
* Doreen Patterson Reitsma, Canadian naval pioneer
* Cobie Smulders, Canadian actress, best known for playing Robin in How I Met Your Mother
* Ashleigh Ball, Canadian voice actress