Lord Byng Secondary School

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Lord Byng Secondary School
Lord byng.svg
Custos Morum (Latin)
Guardian of Morals
Address
3939 West 16th Avenue
Vancouver, British Columbia, V5R 3C9
Canada
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Information
School type Public, high school
Founded 1925 (1925)
School board School District 39 Vancouver
Superintendent Steve Cardwell
Area trustee Sharon Gregson
School number 03939038
Administrator Rita Nardi[1]
Principal Annette Vey-Chilton[1]
Grades 8-12
Enrollment 1268[2] (2014)
Language English
Area West Point Grey
Colour(s) Scarlet and grey         
Team name Grey Ghosts
Website byng.vsb.bc.ca

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. The school opened in 1925 and was named in honour of The Lord Byng of Vimy, a hero of Vimy Ridge as well as the Gallipoli Campaign, and was largely responsible for the incorporation of tanks on a large scale at the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. At the time the school opened, Lord Byng was the Governor General of Canada.

The school was expanded in 2003 with a 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.

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.[3]

Byng Arts Mini School

File:Lordbyng-sec.jpg
Lord Byng Secondary School

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.[4]

Lord Byng sports

Lord Byng sports teams 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.

Some of their recent 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.[5][6]

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 Senior Honour Orchestra and Senior Wind Ensemble, have consistently placed first or gold in provincial and national competitions.

Under the direction of Odette Kurth, 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,[7] where they placed second against advanced American school orchestras.

In March 2014, under the baton of Odette Kurth, the flagship orchestra, the Senior Honours Orchestra, competed in the National School Orchestra Finals in the prestigious Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, in New York City. This orchestra competed against several American orchestras and was crowned first-place champion of the 2014 Orchestra Cup. Trophies brought back include the National Orchestra Cup, Best Solo Violinist Award and Best String Orchestra Award.

The Lord Byng Symphony Orchestra is one of the few public school symphony orchestras in the province. Students are expected to perform unabridged symphonies and pieces. A few grade 12 soloists (at least one per term) are chosen to perform concertos.[8] For the Vancouver Courier's 2012 "Stars of Vancouver Readers Choice Awards", readers placed the Lord Byng Symphony Orchestra in third place under the category "Classical Music Ensemble", behind the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the UBC Symphony Orchestra.[9]

Some of the classes that are offered in band and strings are:

  • 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
  • Junior Honour Orchestra
  • Senior Honour Orchestra
  • Junior Symphony Orchestra
  • Symphony Orchestra
  • Junior Choir
  • Intermediate Choir
  • Senior Choir
  • Chamber Choir Honours

Some of the band trips include Osaka, Japan (1970), Austria and Germany (2003), New York City (2005), Italy (2007), England (2009), China (2011), France & Belgium (2013), and New York City (2015).

Achievements

Lord Byng Secondary School received a rating of 9.2 out of 10 in 2007 from an independent reviewer. It ranked 13th out of the 291 schools ranked in that same review. As of 2006, Lord Byng was tied with University Hill as the top overall ranked public school in the Lower Mainland. In the 2014 Fraser Institutes provincial rankings, Byng was placed as the top public school.

In popular culture

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Vancouver School Board Mini School Information[dead link]
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZpFOtIZIvQ
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ http://canadianelectionatlas.blogspot.ca/2013/04/liberal-leadership-race-results-map.html

External links

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