Are all disabilities visible? Can an adult bully a child? How does dyslexia affect someone?

These are just some of the questions pupils at Glencoats Primary School in Paisley used as part of a board game they created to help tackle disability hate crime.

The P5 children designed the game Safe Spiral as part of a Christmas competition run by Renfrewshire charity I Am Me Scotland, which aims to change attitudes and behaviours so disabled people feel safe in their communities.

The Gazette:

And this week the pupils received a surprise when they discovered Safe Spiral had been brought to life.

Staff at I Am Me were so impressed with the ideas the youngsters had come up with, they sent the design away to be made into a real game that any school can now purchase.

“We were just so overwhelmed by how good the game was,” said Mhairi O’Rourke, I Am Me project initiatives officer.

“The quality of the questions was incredible and they have shown how much knowledge they have about different disabilities.

“We were actually getting quite emotional when we played it in the office.”

As part of the competition – which involved other Renfrewshire primaries – the pupils were asked by I Am Me to be create something that would raise awareness of disability hate crime.

As a class, the pupils settled on a board game that would test how much people really knew about the subject.

The aim of Safe Spiral is to be the first player to reach the centre of the spiral by answering questions about disabilities, bullying and I Am Me correctly.

Leah, nine, said: “We chose to decorate a board game and we came up with a spiral.

“We put all our ideas together and came up with the three themes, all to do with what I Am Me do.

“We hope it will teach people more about disabilities.”

Class teacher Kirstin McPhee said the pupils looked to other popular games for inspiration.

She said: “The children took a lot of inspiration from Trivial Pursuit. They decided as a class that’s what they wanted to base it on.

“It has been fantastic seeing them all work together as a team.

The Gazette:

“The questions are really varied and they had a lot of fun making it. It’s great for them to take pride in something they have done.”

Volunteers and staff from I Am Me visit schools across Renfrewshire to educate pupils from as young as five about different disabilities and how bullying can impact the wellbeing of  disabled people.

The charity also works in partnership with Police Scotland and local businesses for its Keep Safe initiative, which helps to create safe spaces across communities where people in distress can go to seek support.

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