Lord Byng Secondary School
| Lord Byng Secondary School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
3939 West 16th Avenue , , Canada 49°15′31″N 123°11′31″W / 49.25861°N 123.19194°W | |
| Information | |
| School type | Public, high school |
| Motto | Custos Morum (Latin) ("Guardian of Morals") |
| Founded | 1925 |
School board | School District 39 Vancouver |
| Superintendent | Helen McGregor[1] |
Area trustee | Lois Chan-Pedley[2] |
School number | 03939038 |
Principal | Krista Ediger[2] |
| Grades | 8–12 |
| Enrollment | 1,497[3] (2025-2026) |
| Capacity | 1,200 |
| Language | English |
| Area | West Point Grey |
| Colours | Scarlet and grey |
| Team name | Grey Ghosts |
| Public transit access | 7, 25, 33 |
| Website | byng |
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.
History
Opened in 1925, Lord Byng Secondary School was named in honor of Julian Hedworth George Byng, the Lord Byng of Vimy. A British Army officer and later Governor General of Canada.[4] In 2005, the school underwent seismic upgrades. It also expanded with the addition of a new library, a gymnasium, and multiple gallery studios and classrooms.[5]
Byng Arts Mini school program
Within the larger school, the Byng Arts Mini School is a Vancouver District arts-focused Program for students that covers artistic subjects such as Visual Arts, Band, Strings, Theatre, Literary Arts, Film & Media Arts, and Choir through curricular and extracurricular activities.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8][9]
Music
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,[10] 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.
Media Arts/Film/Theatre
The Byng Arts program includes rigorous specialization opportunities in Film Production, Animation and Drama with students receiving numerous awards for Theatre production and Film making. Matthew Thiessen, Karli Sawka and Nicholas Booker currently run these intensive programs creating foundational training for actors and young film makers from across Vancouver.https://www.vsb.bc.ca/lord-byng/our-staff 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".[11]
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.[12]
- 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.[13]
- Exterior shots of Lord Byng were used as Riverdale High in Riverdale.
- The 1986 film, The Boy who could fly, was filmed at Lord Byng Secondary School.
Notable alumni
| Name | Description | Graduation Year | Notes | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashleigh Ball | Voice Actress and Musician | |||
| Elizabeth Ball | Canadian politician, former Vancouver city councillor | |||
| Grimes | Musician | |||
| Jay Worthy | Rapper | |||
| Joey Cramer | Actor | |||
| Dan Mangan | Musician | |||
| Terry Clarke | Jazz drummer | |||
| Stan Douglas | Installation artist | |||
| Barry Downs | Architect | |||
| Allan Graves | Canadian-American bridge player, Senior World Bridge Champion, Canadian Bridge Hall of Fame | |||
| Marcus Haber | Soccer player | |||
| Chris Haddock | Screenwriter | |||
| Cory Lee | Pop singer | |||
| Chris Mears | Baseball player, former Major League Baseball player and Olympian | |||
| Shaone Morrisonn | Hockey player for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League | [14] | ||
| Joyce Murray | Liberal MP for Vancouver Quadra | |||
| Eric Nicol | Writer | |||
| Phil Nimmons | Jazz clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and academic | |||
| Carly Pope | Actress, co-star of Young People Fucking | |||
| Ross Rebagliati | Snowboarder, first Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal for snowboarding | |||
| Doreen Patterson Reitsma | Naval Pioneer, the first woman from British Columbia to enlist in the postwar Women's Division of the Royal Canadian Navy | Attended both Point Grey Secondary School, and Lord Byng Secondary School. | ||
| Shannon Smith | Swimmer and freestyle record holder, 1976 Montreal Olympic bronze medalist in the 400-meter freestyle. | [15] | ||
| Cobie Smulders | Actress, known for playing Robin in How I Met Your Mother | 2000 | Voted “Most Respected” by her classmates | [16] |
References
- ↑ "Office of the Superintendent". Vancouver School Board. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
- 1 2 "Byng Secondary". Contact Information. Vancouver School Board. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
- ↑ https://studentsuccess.gov.bc.ca/school/03939008/report/contextual-information
- ↑ "Lord Byng Secondary School Vancouver, British Columbia" (PDF). media.vsb.bc.ca.
- ↑ "Lord Byng History". Lord Byng Secondary School. June 13, 2019.
- ↑ Vancouver School Board Mini School Information Archived September 11, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Lord Byng Secondary School Information". Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- ↑ "Lord Byng Athletics". Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- ↑ "Vancouver Secondary Schools' Athletic Association (Design, Hosting, Registration & Administration tools by esportsdeskpro.com)". Esportsdesk.com. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- ↑ "Byng Honour Orchestras Captivate Judges at MusicFest Canada". Retrieved February 5, 2012.
- ↑ "B.C. school stages controversial 'Laramie Project'". CBC Arts. January 11, 2006. Archived from the original on January 13, 2006.
- ↑ "Info on 'extensive' Wolverine filming". Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ↑ "– YouTube". YouTube.
- ↑ "Morrisonn will get out of Ovechkin's shadow". The Georgia Straight. November 1, 2006. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
- ↑ Little, Lyndon, "Shannon Erases Shane's Record", The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver, British Columbia, March 15, 1976, pg. 19
- ↑ "Cobie Smulders". thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved July 28, 2026.