Experienced, Diverse and International

Our Central Team

Cennydd John, Founder & CEO

Cenn set up Hatching Dragons in 2015 after the birth of his son, Nai. Searching for an early years model that spoke to his interest in things international, he came up short and decided to set about building a preschool brand that delivered what others were not. A Mandarin speaker who's worked in the fields of politics, international relations and education, since graduating with an MA in Chinese and Japanese from the University of Edinburgh, Cenn has studied in Tsinghua, Fudan and worked with the University of Cambridge and UCL on second language acquisition developments in technology 

Li Jing, Training & Curriculum Lead

With a central focus on academic and curriculum development, Li Jing works with Cenn centrally to devise our educational frameworks in both language acquisition and EYFS delivery. Training and working with staff across all three sites across the portfolio, Li Jing holds the highest qualification in early years teaching from UCL's Institute of Education (Early Years Teacher Status) and so is uniquely placed to bring her depth of international experience, linguistic expertise and early years educational skills to the schools and teams at Hatching Dragons

Harriet Wakefield, Community Relations

Harriet joined Hatching Dragons after returning from a 7 year stint in China, teaching at some of the country's most prestigious international schools and kindergartens. A graduate with a first in law, she's achieved an HSK level 6 in Mandarin, is learning Spanish and has an advanced level of educational knowledge and expertise from teaching preschool across China and so brings with her a unique set of skills to working with and communicating to our community. 

Amira Quartsi, Operations

Amira supports the City & Canada Water branches with all operational support and back office delivery. A graduate with a degree in Law, she's worked in administrative capacities across some of London's best known nursery brands before joining the central team at Hatching Dragons and manages all HR, Safer Recruitment, Compliance and internal communications / scheduling on behalf of the management teams at our central and south eastern schools. 

Nayma Arefin, Recruitment & Customer Communications

Nayma has joined the business as a communications and operations specialist, working to ensure our CRM is maximised to deliver operational efficiencies in our communications with new staff, candidates and our existing and new families. With a degree in business administration and qualifications in digital marketing and communications from Hubspot, she's a certified marketing communications specialist 

Advisors & Board Directors

Philippa Dodds, Educational Director

Philippa has worked in education for over 40 years, being awarded an MBE for services to children and education in the 2020 honours list. She is a Harvard Kennedy scholar and worked with the team at UCL's IOE in the implementation programme for Jolly Phonics for literacy development across London in the 1990s and is a life trustee of Coram Family, the longest standing children's charity in the UK.

Victoria O'Brien, Quality Assurance Advisor

Victoria was head of early years at Dukes Education and a former head of one of Alpha Plus' most prestigious nurseries in London. She has also been an HMI for Ofsted and between these two experiences, she can draw on deep operational and compliance practice knowledge to advise our teams how to work towards Outstanding practice.