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Bullies trumped
A BOY who suffered years of abuse at the hands of bullies has designed a Top Trumps-style card game in a bid to stand up to his tormentors.
And now Jordan Robson's game is being used to help other children to beat the bullies.
Jordan, who lives in Sulgrave, Washington, did the drawings for his game – Fire Within – which pits bullies against non-bullies and is being used by teachers and youth workers as a tool to help victims talk about their experiences and confront their tormentors.
Thirteen-year-old Jordan said: "I designed the cards following my own experiences of bullying. I wanted to develop something that would catch the attention of young people who would either just find the cards fun, or, like me, had been bullied and wanted someone to talk to."
Funding to develop the scheme came from Sunderland Council.
Coun Derek Sleightholme, praising Jordan's efforts, said: "This is a scheme which is tackling a problem we all hear so much about and anything that can stamp out bullying is something we have to get behind.
"The cards are a great way of demonstrating to bullies that schemes are in place to put a stop to it."
Lisa Boyd, team manager at On Track, who was behind the funding bid, said: "It's fantastic that we were able to encourage a young man to design something that would help young people in the future to tackle the massive effect of bullying.
"We're looking forward to the cards being widely distributed across schools and youth organisations in the area and seeing them incorporated into their teaching."
Pc Wendy Scott, a community police officer seconded to the On Track team, worked closely with Jordan through the three months it took to design the cards, which use characters like the White Wizard and the Devil's Dog to symbolise non-bullies and bullies.
Lisa said she hoped Jordan's cards would eventually be distributed city-wide.
* FIRE Within comprises a set of 36 cards, equally divided between bullies and anti-bullies.
Each has four powers represented in percentages – combat, speed, strength and rarity.
The pack is shuffled and dealt face down to the players and the player to the dealer's left starts with his top card.
He reads out a power of the character, eg strength, and the other players then read out the same item from their cards.
The one with the best or highest value wins and places all of the top cards, including their own, at the bottom of the pile. Play continues until one person wins all the cards.
In a contest between the White Knight (anti-bully) and Grim Reaper (bully), the White Knight would win on speed (50 per cent against 30) but lose on strength (50 per cent against 60).
On Track staff try to put conversation about real examples of bullying and how to combat it into the play during the course of the game.
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Weather for Sunderland
Tuesday 07 February 2012
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