Westminster Kindergarten & Daycare

We're open from 07:30 until 18:30, Monday to Friday, 52 weeks a year. We close for the days between Christmas and New Year, for our 3 inset days (on the first Monday of each term: January for Spring, April for Summer after the Easter holidays, and September for Autumn/Winter after the summer break), and on bank holidays too. We don't close over the summer or Easter periods, and we don't offer refunds for any holidays you might take during those times, our wonderful staff are still hard at work supporting the children who are with us. It's a bit like a gym membership: a steady monthly payment that lets us keep nurturing and exercising those young minds, rain or shine!

No, one of the reasons Hatching Dragons was created was to make childcare more flexible for families. You don’t have to attend five full days a week; you can choose the number of days that work best for you.

We operate year-round, and fees are charged monthly in advance. If you ever need additional childcare beyond your regular schedule, you can book extra sessions at our standard daily or ad hoc rates.

All of our onboarding instructions will be automatically issued to you when you've signed your contract and paid your deposit, but you can find a copy of your onboarding pack below, to get a sense of what you'll need on the day

We don't think we're just Good. We think we're Great! Check out our latest Ofsted report right here! Dive into the great feedback we snagged from the inspectors who were seriously wowed by the cosy and nurturing space we've crafted for your little ones. They gave big shoutouts to our incredible team, top-of-the-line facilities, and activities that turn learning into a total blast!

At Hatching Dragons City of London, we focus on Mandarin Chinese, with Arabic joining our programme soon!

Every age group enjoys at least one dedicated Mandarin session a day, led by our native-speaking teachers. These sessions are woven into the nursery’s daily rhythm, through stories, songs, drama, and hands-on play, making language learning natural and fun.

We’ll be introducing more languages soon, building on our passion for helping children grow up confidently multilingual.

We believe that diverse teams deliver dynamism and progression. It's one of the reasons we felt that education needed to draw on the best of what the world has to offer - just as we believe that with diverse sets of people, organisations can engineer the best ideas and ways of working.

All our teachers have Paediatric First Aid and hold some of the highest qualifications in early years teaching from some of the best educational institutes in the world. We have graduates from the Institute of Education at UCL; we have people from Maria Montessori Institute and more.

We know life can get busy, so we keep things flexible. You don’t have to attend full-time, you can choose the days that work best for your family, depending on availability.

For children to get the most out of our language programme, we recommend at least five half days a week, that’s when you’ll really see those language skills blossom!

We also offer a limited number of government-funded places at City of London.
You can find our full list of fees, schedules, and funding details here:
View our City of London Day Nursery School Fee Structure

We can care for your children as young as 6 months. We could go younger but always felt that those first 6 months are so important for parents to bond with their child, we really encourage parents to take the parental leave they can to experience that wonderful time. Because it is so precious, and so important, developmentally, for the child, and emotionally for you as new parents to get that time. So our policy is 6 months onwards, all the way through to Reception at the age of five. Your pattern of care will remain consistent until you a) submit a change of hours form or b) a termination form, which will then see your contracted hours of childcare change one month from the date of that submission.

We have plenty of schools in our area that our families move on to but it really depends on whether the family is resident (and so can select some of the amazing publicly funding primary schools near by, such as Prior Weston, City of London Primary Academy Islington or the Aldgate School; or the many private offers there are nearby from St Paul's Cathedral Choir School; the Lyceum; City of London Juniors; Charterhouse and Dallington. Each have their own application policies but our children have gone to all of them at different times...

We strongly believe that education should be a dynamic blend, shaped both by the child's interests and autonomy, fostering their individuality, and by adult guidance to introduce new materials, building their knowledge, understanding, and skills.

Our inspiration stems from weaving together the finest pedagogical frameworks globally. We dip into Montessori and take a stroll through High Scope; we explore Reggio alongside Steiner, Te Whariki, and those from East Asia. Recognizing that no single culture holds the exclusive key to education, we draw on the best from each to craft a curriculum that brings out the best for everyone.

Our catering team have devised our approach to food and infant nutrition in line with the guidance set out by the British Nutritional Foundation with specific reference to the Government's Eatwell Guide on delivering a healthy, balanced diet for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

We take the health and safety of your children very seriously, which is why we use management systems to secure weekly reports on children's attendance and their dietary and allergy needs, direct to our in-house catering teams. All of our chefs are qualified in the culinary arts, have advanced food hygiene training and follow the procedures outlined in the Safer Food Better Business guidance from the Food Standards Agency, so you can rest assured that your children's nutrition is in the best possible hands.

It's not just about what we do for the little ones; let's not overlook the daily hurdles faced by the most crucial people in their world – parents. Parenting is a challenging journey, and the demands are on the rise, often leading some to decide against having children altogether.

We believe it's not fair, and we're here to be more than just a service. We aim to support our working families in being the best parents they can be while excelling in their careers and personal lives. Our goal is to ease the challenges of parenting, making the journey smoother for our amazing parents.