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Saturday 24 December 2016

Thank You Ikea!

The Ikea team who donated and installed our new furniture
The Ikea team who donated and installed our new furniture
The Ikea team from the new store which will be opening soon in Sheffield gave a Christmas present to Darnall Forum and the local residents who use our centre for courses in ESOL, IT, confidence building, sewing, crochet and other subjects. They installed new furniture which has made our learning spaces much more user friendly. We can now accommodate more learners at a time. Thank you to the team for their gift and all their hard work.

Tuesday 13 December 2016

What People Said About Our Celebrate England Events!

First the good news! You can read a report about the 'Celebrate EnglandLantern Parade here.

However, in the same week that Dame Louise Casey warned about 'worrying levels of segregation' between some Muslims and other members of society and recommended that schoolchildren should be taught British values, some local Muslim parents complained that their children had been sent home from school with leaflets about our 'Celebrate England' Christmas Community Fair. 

The event, held at the Church of Christ in Darnall, was designed to help people from different communities meet one another and better understand some of our traditional English customs and values. The Christmas Fair had a Christmas theme, and included an information point about the Christian celebration of Christmas featuring the Church's nativity scene. However, it also featured many secular aspects of Christmas that are typically English including a visit from Father Christmas.

There was no attempt to assimilate people into a uniform 'English' way of celebrating Christmas, much less to persuade them to convert from Islam to Christianity. The Fair was simply designed to help people integrate better with their neighbours and understand some of the things which have made England what it is like today. 

Those who came, Christian, Muslim and non-believers alike, all enjoyed themselves and got to know one another better. We hope that local schools will heed Dame Janet Casey's advice and not buckle to pressure to keep people isolated from and ignorant about key aspects of Britishness or Englishness. (In this case it is 'Englishness' that was being celebrated, because Scottish people traditionally had a very different attitude to Christmas and did not celebrate it in the same way.)

Saturday 3 December 2016

Our Community Christmas Fair helped local people from all backgrounds and communities to Celebrate England

Montage of photos from our community Christmas Fair

The Christmas nativity scene and more photos of our Christmas Fair






















Our Community Christmas Fair was a great success. Over 100 local adults and children came along. They enjoyed meeting Father Christmas and taking part in a range of Christmas workshops with a Christmas theme. There was a good mixture of people taking part, Pakistani, Arab, Romanian, Portuguese, English, and Bangladeshi! It was a very diverse event celebrated by everyone regardless of religion, culture or origin. People of faith and no faith all had an enjoyable day and learned about Christmas traditions and the origins of the Christmas festival, represented by the Christmas tree and the Christmas nativity scene with the baby Jesus and the Holy Family in the stable at Bethlehem, where they were visited by Wisemen bringing gifts to celebrate his birth.

Friday 2 December 2016

Community Christmas Fair

Big Lottery Logo
Join us for our Community Christmas Fair on Saturday 3 December at the Church of Christ from 12 till 4 pm. 

Meet your neighbours and discover some of the traditions which make Christmas special. Find out about the origins of Christmas. Meet Father Christmas and receive a free present. 

Discover things to celebrate about England with our Celebrate England Community Christmas events!

Supported by Sheffield City Council and the Big Lottery.

Help conserve our waterways in Darnall and Tinsley

Waterways poster inviting volunteers to help with a clean up project