Jane Oppegaard

Director and Founder of Happy Little Yogi

Jane Oppegaard is the Founder and Director of Happy Little Yogi, working with schools and nurseries across Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

At 28, Jane was diagnosed with scoliosis. Looking for pain relief, she discovered Kundalini yoga and meditation, and it changed the direction of her career. She holds a degree in Fashion and Textiles, and before founding Happy Little Yogi she worked as a Design Manager at Berlei, where she was instrumental in launching the Shock Absorber sports bra range, before moving into yoga, holistic therapies and wellbeing full time.

Alongside her work with children, Jane continues to work with adult clients, teaching weekly yoga classes and offering corporate wellbeing packages designed to ease stress and physical tension in the workplace, bringing yoga, breath-work and mindfulness into the working day.

Jane qualified as a yoga teacher in 2008 and began specialising in children's yoga soon after. In 2009 she founded Happy Little Yogi, building it up over more than a decade into a multi-school programme, delivering classes as part of the school curriculum as well as breakfast clubs, after-school clubs, nursery sessions, holiday camps, SEN-tailored sessions and community classes for children aged 2 to 16, and beyond. She has worked with one school for 16 years, and two others for 8 years.

In 2019, Jane launched the Happy Little Yogi Flow Teacher Training Programme, accredited by Yoga Alliance Professionals, to train the next generation of children's yoga teachers. More recently, she launched Business in a Box, a ready-made model for newly trained teachers to build their own successful children's yoga business, with an optional licence to keep that connection to the Happy Little Yogi brand.

Jane believes children are so often told to sit still, without ever being shown how. Her mission: empowering children to self-regulate from a young age, teaching them to breathe, tune in with their body and be mindful.