Hatching Dragons Nursery City of London

wanted better carers - he started at 9 months or so and has flourished into a determined but considerate and highly communicative little boy: caring, courteous (as much as a 2-year-old can be) and capable and I put most (if not all) of that down to their care. And my little girl started at the same age. Now in preschool, she sits happily with our Chinese books that have oral pronunciation tools built-in, pointing at the characters and objects and happily communicating what I know, from the books, to be the accurate pronunciation of the object. It's amazing and I have no doubt that the skills she's learnt here will last a lifetime - thanks to the manager. Thanks to the team!

comfortable.
They give kids a friendly, multicultural and stimulating environment.
Also, as an organisation, Hatching Dragons is very transparent and has shown to have sound health and safety processes, thereby building trust that our child is safe at any time.
Would recommend any day!

HD. When our child was in for their settling in period, there was another child with a streaming nose, nasty, persistent cough, and streaming eyes. This child gave our child strep because we had similar symptoms days later. We kept our child home, everyone fell ill, and we lost work.
Yet when our child attended after a course of vaccinations where a fever is normal, we were sent home despite the nursery knowing this. We were then sent home two days later when we came back because, apparently, we had to send the kid off for a PCR test - something that wasn't communicated to us. Communication needs help.
The building is inaccessible with buggies and they don't do cloth nappies either.

my kids converse with their teachers in this completely different and wonderful way. The variety in daily actives, the communication with parents (both in-person and via the online daily updates), the affection given, the central location and nearby benefits (e.g. Barbican and parks), the lovely and healthy food all lead to a very high recommendation. As parents we found the staff, without exception, to be extremely friendly and engaging and obviously the most important bit, both my children absolutely love going!

she is given and really enjoys the various activities. I am always impressed by the variation in activities. The nursery has been extremely supportive during the coronavirus pandemic and in particular to the key workers during the hardest months. I am very happy with the care our daughter has received and very much recommend this nursery.

additional exposure to mandarin has been beneficial to his language skills too. It was also lovely to get photo updates on the app every day. I would have liked to have known what types of food he was eating though (the app only tells you how much they ate). My only other issue was it was hard to get up and down the stairs to the buggy storage area, but otherwise, I would highly recommend this nursery.

seriously, particularly during the Covid period. My daughter became an expert hand-washer and I credit the nursery for teaching her this habit.
Outdoor space is limited though the team always brings the children out to the nearby park for fresh air. My only gripe is the building itself is probably not ideal for a nursery as one has to navigate many stairs, particularly at the entrance where many have to manage a buggy and a toddler learning to walk. This is of course not the fault of the nursery though.

a big smile and are very approachable. My daughter has developed so much in the little time she has been there. Despite the nursey not having an outdoor garden, the children are taken out every day to local parks, soft plays and museums. Daily online logs with pictures allow me to see what activities my daughter has done throughout the day, how much she ate and drank. I cannot recommend this nursery enough!

Food is organic and day nap is managed properly. The app is where I get all the updates of my daughter’s daily activities.
Staff are very responsible and they are currently working with me on potty training.

location is great for children to explore the Barbican and Museum of London.

to children. They keep inventing various activities, which not only develop a child's skills but also teach them how to build relations and work in the group.
The staff is always sharing a few photos and day descriptions via online app.

Another interesting thing is the 50/50 time split between English and Mandarin at nursery. After a year our child speaks both languages without any effort. That involves singing, nursery rhymes and simple day to day conversations.
Both children and parents take a part in events organised by nursery coming from both cultures e.g.: Christmas or Chinese New Year. It is a great fun and opportunity to get familiar with other children and their parents.

and notices of nap times. We can directly let the teachers know of any concerns or input that we have that day. Also, the nursery is very clean. This is important for young children when they are crawling and putting things into their mouths.

The most special thing about Hatching Dragons is how our child is learning to think, speak not only in English and Mandarin but also in both cultures. We LOVE that there are kids from different cultures at the nursery all learning languages together. The staff throw parties on holidays for parents and family to come and take part at the nursery. It really fosters a strong sense of community as parents and families get to know each other.

he always comes home with interesting and fun stories of what he's done that day, more recently telling me new Chinese words he's learnt.
Can't recommend enough.

the management team who seemed much removed from the day to day operations.
(i) T&Cs - These were not covered as part of our initial on-boarding. We subsequently identified a number of contentious points including effectively a double deposit (initial dep = month fee + cur month + month in adv)
(ii) Daily updates on Online tool inconsistent or not completed at all
(iii) Food poor/non-nutritious and often replicated in lunch and evening meals (duplicating carb inputs for children)
(iv) Central Office staff slow or unresponsive to queries
The above (amongst other things) had been raised multiple times with no signs of progress to the point we were left with no other choice but to find an alternative.