Ysgol Gyfun Garth Olwg - School Badge

School Badge

Although the school’s name changed to Ysgol Gyfun Garth Olwg in 2008, the school badge retained the name Rhydfelen until the 2008-2009 term. There was a competition held during April 2009 to create a new badge for the school. The competition was open to every pupil and also the pupils in the final year of the feeding primary schools. The chosen design enabled the winning pupil to follow her design from conception to seeing the final product. Unfortunately, the competition to decide on a new badge was not deemed fair by many pupils and parents - as the chance to keep the old badge was somehow removed between the meeting to decide on the entries for the competition and the ballot paper - this led to a feeling of unfairness.

The old school badge depicted a coal tip or a mountain of coal which was once a common sight in the locality and the green is the grass growing down below. It was supposed to symbolise that the Welsh language will one day grow over the people like the grass will one day grow over the mountain of coal.

The new badge depicts a mountain range in the shape of a 'G', for Garth Olwg and Gymraeg. The "Gymraeg" justification is extremely tenuous, since "Cymraeg" is the de facto name of the language, and "Gymraeg" a mutation, normally prefixed by 'Y'. The mountain is, of course the Garth Mountain, where the school derives its name.

The School uniform was re-launched during the Autumn term of 2009. It consists of a black jumper with the new school badge, white shirt, green and gray striped tie, black trousers/skirt and black shoes.