Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni is a Welsh-medium school situated in the village of Fleur-de-Lys in the Rhymney Valley. Cwm Rhymni was founded in 1981 with just over 150 pupils and has since grown to 1,684 pupils with 1,164 at the Gellihaf campus and 520 at Y Gwyndy. The school's motto is 'Tua'r Goleuni' and its badge is a dragonrampant. The school is traditionally represented by the colours red and black. A new campus for Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni opened in Caerphilly Area in 2013 for years 7 through 11; Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni – Safle'r Gwyndy, due to the demand of a new Welsh Medium school. The original school is now called Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni – Safle Gellihaf so it is not confused with the other campus.
History
Cwm Rhymni was originally situated on two sites, a Lower school for years 7 and 8 and an Upper school for years 9 to 13, situated in Aberbargoed and Bargoed respectively. By the late 1990s these buildings were in very poor condition, and after a long struggle the school was finally granted permission to build a new state of the art one-site building in Fleur-de-lys, which opened in 2002. The new building was funded through PFI. The original Headmaster of Cwm Rhymni was Mr Huw Thomas, who was succeeded by Mr Hefin Mathias in 1995. Mr Mathias was in turn succeeded upon his retirement in 2008 by Mr Owain ap Dafydd. In April 2020, following the retirement of Mr ap Dafydd, Mr Matthew Webb was appointed the Headteacher. HEADTEACHERS
1981 - 1995
1995 - 2008
2008 - 2020
2020 - Present
Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni has a strong reputation in relation to sports, especially in rugby and athletics. The school has also fared very well down the years in the Urdd Eisteddfod. Cwm Rhymni has a very large catchment area stretching from Rhymney near the top of the valley to Caerphilly. The breadth of the catchment area is reflected by the names of the three main corridors at the Gellihaf campus; Ebwy, Sirhywi and Rhymni; three adjoining South Wales Valleys that all feed some pupils into Cwm Rhymni. Prior to the establishment of Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw in 1988, Cwm Rhymni's catchment area also included the whole of the county of Gwent and pupils attended the school from as far afield as Newport and Chepstow. The school's four houses are named after Welsh saints: Mabon, Cadog, Tudful and Sannan. Tudful was a later addition to the original three houses as the school's numbers grew in the early 1990s. In 2009, a new house, Ilan, was also created in addition to the previous four houses because of the growing number of students.
Cwm Rhymni currently has a partnership with Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw, Pontypool. With this partnership more courses are made available in both schools. This type of programme has been tried in many schools before but the main difference with partneriaeth 6 is that the teachers travel between the schools or teach via conference link. Currently the school is trying to expand this partnership to include Ysgol Gyfun Rhydywaun
