A rather unusual character has been spotted at Croscombe school.

The newest member of the school has giant blue feet, multicoloured toenails, rainbow ears, a flower crown, a peacocks tail, pom-pom hair, and a very furry blue Croscombe school uniform!

Children across Croscombe school have been working with scenic artist and puppet maker Clare Barr to make an incredible hugging puppet chair. Clare trained at RADA and has worked across a huge range of projects including making giant puppets for Longleat and huge installations for Glastonbury Festival.

After two years where hugs have almost been marked as a thing of danger the hugging chair aims to reclaim the hug and offer family and friends some of the hugs we've all missed over the past couple of years.

The puppet has been entirely designed and made by children themselves, with all the features being chosen by children reflecting things that they feel share kindness.

As well as issuing giant hugs on the playground the puppet will be part of an exhibition in Shepton Mallet in July showcasing work created throughout the project 374 Ways to Change the World.

More information can be found at www.makethesunshine.co.uk

This is part of a wide range of projects and workshops being run by Make the Sunshine in partnership with six local school – St Paul's CofE VC Junior School, Bowlish Infant School, St Aldhelm's Cof E VA Primary, The Federation of Croscombe and Stoke St Michael and Shepton Mallet Infants School. Each school has selected a project or theme that expresses one way in which they would like to change the world and have been working with a wide range of professional artists to create their projects.

The projects and workshops have been generously supported by Shepton Mallet Town Council, Mendip Council, Somerset Community Foundation, Wells Festival of Literature and Take Art Barn Fund.