We had a brilliant Arts Award session today as we explored one of our key inspirations, the artist Henri Matisse. We discovered some fascinating facts about his life, but what really captured our interest was his incredible resilience — when illness meant he could no longer paint in the traditional way, he didn’t give up. Instead, he began “painting with scissors”, creating bold, joyful collages from brightly coloured paper. Inspired by this creativity and determination, and linking to our Arts Award theme of alpacas and how animals can support our mental health, we worked together to collage a giant newspaper alpaca. Watching everyone collaborate was wonderful to see. We all agreed that the experience boosted our wellbeing — a perfect reminder of how art, animals, and alpacas can lift our mood and support our mental health.