Artistic expression took over China club last week as Carisbrooke students combined their usual enjoyment of language learning with a lesson in ancient Chinese ink painting. The college's Chinese language assistant, Miss Yan, who led the session, said: "Chinese painting has taken many shapes over our long history, but I chose to explore a type of art with the students that I feel best represents Chinese culture."

In ink painting, traditional Chinese brushes are used with ink to typically produce black and white paintings and are very different in appearance to western paintings, which often use many more colours. These pieces create a particular feeling or mood by leaving lots of empty space on the paper, something which symbolises the mist, the clouds, the rivers and other natural elements of the country.

Miss Yan said: "During last week's session we looked at the differences between western art and Chinese art and learnt about some of these particular characteristics. The students that attended were amazing and, after only a short time with minimal instruction, they learnt how to paint bamboo images and used their very special brushes and ink to produce some truly wonderful pieces of art. Bamboo is often used in winter cooking and to us represents strength and resilience as it can not easily be broken by the wind. Learning about cultural beliefs such as this encourages our students to view the world in different ways while also learning new vocabulary in the process."

China Club, run by Miss Yan and Mr Briscoe, takes place every Tuesday after school and is a great place for KS3 students to get help with their homework or just have fun with Chinese! It is also a great provision for GCSE students to do extra revision and practice before their exams this summer.