Nursery World - Sesame Street aims to bridge sectarian split

Early years organisation NIPPA is teaming up with 'Sesame Street' to produce 26 half-hour TV programmes teaching tolerance to young children in Northern Ireland.

The MIFC involves children watching a series of cartoons featuring four animated characters - Tom, Kim, Jenny and Jim - who will now appear in the new 'Sesame Street' series alongside stars such as Big Bird and Cookie Monster.

NIPPA chief executive Siobhan Fitzpatrick said the programmes would be screened on TV early next year and distributed to pre-schools through NIPPA's Respecting Difference resource box. She said, 'The series will cover themes of racism, religion, physical difference, gender difference and bullying. Research in Northern Ireland has shown that children as young as three can develop negative attitudes towards people from different religious backgrounds so it is important that we help pre-school teachers deal with these issues. '

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included