Year of the Snake painting by Sylvia Yip of East of England Chinese School in Nottingham.

Have a look at these paintings! Pupils from the East of England Chinese School in Nottingham produced some wonderful art for BBC Nottingham Online.

With the arrival of Chinese New Year, schools across the country are learning about the culture, tradition and art of the Far East.

The East of England Chinese School has 200 students who come from Chinese communities across the region. They meet every Sunday in Nottingham for language, martial arts and fine arts lessons.

This year they agreed to draw some water colour paintings of the snake to mark Chinese New Year.

The Chinese character for Snake is "she".

The Chinese zodiac has 12 animals and rotates through a cycle, but unlike the Western concept, the snake is not a negative symbol, but a positive one.

Those born in the Snake Year are considered enthusiastic, wise and attractive, but can be a bit mean and conceited.

You're a Snake if you were born in 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989 or this year!

If you want to find out if you are a Dog, Ox or Monkey, check the BBC Tyneside website where you'll find a complete explanation of the Chinese horoscope.

Click on the paintings to see a larger version.

You can see a selection of paintings from another school -- Woodborough Woods Foundation School -- in our painting gallery, as well as drawings below. The colours and images are all quite startling.

Lucky colours for the Chinese New Year are red and gold or yellow, and you'll see a lot of those colours in our children's paintings.