THE CORDWALLES BADGE AND SCHOOL MOTTO

The Cordwalles badge has, since the school’s inception, been a simple and bold ‘C’. This has been an easily recognisable symbol of the school to the many boys who have passed through its doors.

The school is now in an exciting growth phase and part of its developmental plan has been endless hours of discussion and planning to update the badge, transforming it into one that has meaning and relevance to the boys of Cordwalles, a school that was established ‘for the promotion of Christian Education and sound learning’.

To this end, a new badge was designed and a motto devised during an exercise in which the Cordwalles boys, staff, old boys and parents were extensively involved.

The badge’s key elements are:

The shield:  The shield of faith which protects us from all that is thrown at us by those forces of evil surrounding us.
The sword: The sword of truth is God’s word. We need to be brave to stand up for what is true and right according to God’s laws and decrees. It is God’s message to us that destroys the evil around us.
The St George’s cross: This reminds us of St George; what he did to fight against evil and to stand up firmly against the powers of greed, selfishness and destruction.

Cordwalles has a close association with St George. The school in the UK after which our own school was named has a huge picture of St George and the Dragon painted on its chapel wall; here in our own Cordwalles chapel is a stained glass window depicting St George and the Dragon.

St George was a Turk who came from a very wealthy family in Palestine. He rose quickly through the ranks of the Roman army, became a Christian and gave up all he had to the poor and destitute, before being martyred for his beliefs in about 300 AD. The legend of St George and the dragon grew out of his bravery to stand up for the truth and to demonstrate great compassion. It depicts him as a courageous warrior who saves a town from a dangerous dragon while on his travels around the world. Thus, St George seemed to be the logical figure around which to centre our badge and its story.

The objective at Cordwalles is to equip our boys with skills, motivation and values so that they, like St George, can courageously stand up for what is right and compassionately give to those in need, fighting against evil in our society.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he writes,’ Let your faith be like a shield, and you will be able to stop all the flaming arrows of the evil one…. For a sword use God’s message that comes from the spirit.’

Along with our new badge, we are proud of our new motto, which was proposed by a boy in Grade 5 at the time. It is -

“Courage Builds Character”

This is how it applies to Cordwalles and all that the school stands for:

Courage	-	To stand up for the truth, to persevere, to take risks, to have faith, to take action to feel compassion, to be the best you can be.
Builds	-	This implies laying down a foundation on which further development takes place.  Building relates to making progress, transforming, growing and achieving.
Character	-	Each one of us has a distinctive and unique character. Our character is determined by our mental and moral qualities.  It is courage that builds our individual personalities and makes us who we are.

Our five most important values are congruent with the definition of these words. These values are:

• Respect – for God, oneself, others and the environment
• Courage – being brave to stand up for what is right
• Integrity – to always act fairly and honestly
• Responsibility – to take action where necessary
• Compassion – to help all those in need

 

The Cordwalles community is delighted and proud of its new badge and motto and looks forward to sharing the story of how they were created in the years to come.