Hundreds of school children from Armagh and Monaghan met the residents of Sesame Tree as Hilda, Potto and Archie visit the Navan Centre, Co. Armagh last week. 

 This visit brought together two projects supported by the International Fund for Ireland - Junior Achievement Ireland’s Hand of Friendship Programme and Sesame Tree, the Northern Ireland version of Sesame Street. 

 The special appearance by the residents of Sesame Tree is part of a programme of outreach events by the Sesame Tree Project including a TV series broadcast on CBeebies, education resources for pre-school and foundation stage as well as a website (bbc.co.uk/sesametree). The outreach events are designed to encourage teachers and children to explore the themes raised by Sesame Tree, aligned with the Personal Development and Mutual Understanding element of the Northern Ireland Curriculum.

Orla Fitzsimons, Junior Achievement Ireland, explains: “Sesame Tree addresses themes such as making new friends, trying new things, celebrating differences and letting others join in.  It is a natural fit and useful resource to schools participating in the Hand of Friendship Programme.

“Resources are scarce in this area of the curriculum for younger children and we believe schools developing shared education will find the Sesame Tree experience particularly useful. Hand of Friendship is currently bringing school students together and this provides an opportunity for younger children in our participating schools to learn together as well.”

Sarah Young, Community Engagement, Sesame Tree says: “We are delighted to be working with Junior Achievement Ireland to bring Sesame Tree to children in both Armagh and Monaghan. Our project allows us to offer a limited number of outreach events so we felt we could achieve more by working in partnership with existing cross-community initiatives such

as the Hand of Friendship Programme. We hope that our outreach events will make it even easier for teachers and children alike to explore Sesame Tree’s themes, either in their own classrooms or as part of their shared education experience with other schools.

“Our outreach events involve personal appearances by Hilda, Potto and Archie and their sharing of their favourite Sesame Tree adventures, so we also hope this event will be a lot of fun for our audience!”

Dr Denis Rooney CBE, Chairman, International Fund for Ireland, says: "This is an exciting milestone in the continued success of the Junior Achievement Ireland Hand of Friendship Programme.  In partnership with Sesame Tree, the Hand of Friendship Programme continues to reach out to pupils across the border counties to help build both cross-community and cross-border contact between schools and pupils. 

"The Fund is passionate about the support it is providing to the Sesame Tree educational resources, Sesame outreach programme and the Sesame Tree TV series. They all help to educate our children in a fun and entertaining way, while supporting the Fund’s work in ensuring that this and future generations can live together in a more shared and integrated society.”

The Sesame Tree Project is co-funded by Northern Ireland Screen.