Part craft, part full-blown adventure — our in-character facilitator, Jewelz turns the room into a creature academy from the big entrance to the final parade.

She has wrangled ponies across the back paddock, hand-reared a fussy baby dragon (it only ate marshmallows), and once out-stomped a dinosaur in a walking contest.

Using colourful pool noodles and craft materials, each child builds their own creature — a prancing pony, a fire-breathing dragon or a thunder-footed dinosaur. Then they don’t just build it, they become it: ponies leap and gallop, dragons swoop and bound, dinosaurs stomp and rumble, with the Jewelz coaching each child into their creature’s movement and personality.

From there it’s into the obstacle courses to “graduate” from the Academy. Because every creature moves differently, every child has a real part to play — inclusive, active, and built to land across a whole mixed group. Each child takes home a creature they made themselves, and a session they’ll be talking about for weeks.