Talking Early Years with June O'Sullivan
An inspiring, outspoken speaker, author, podcaster and regular media commentator, June O'Sullivan OBE is Chief Executive of the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), one of London’s largest and most successful charitable social enterprises, operating 40+ award-winning nurseries in some of London’s most disadvantaged areas. Her monthly ‘real talk’ and no-holds-barred podcasts dive into the questions, topics and debates on all things Early Years, Parenting and Social Business – plus much, much more.
Episodes
50 episodes
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Frank Cottrell-Boyce
If you have been frog marched through books, why would you ever read for pleasure? asks Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the Children’s Book Laureate. The award-winning author and screenwriter Frank Cotterell Boyce is the 13th Children'...
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Season 6
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Episode 3
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39:40
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Jools Page
Professional Love: The Beating Heart of Early Years Education and Care On Valentine’s Day, there is much talk about romantic love, but we are talking about a very different kind of love; professional love, a t...
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Season 6
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Episode 2
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40:25
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Louise Hannan
Unpacking The Twoness of Twos The Government has agreed to continue the roll out of funded places for two-year-olds, with talk of putting them into schools. Many are concerned that this plan may ignore the uniquenes...
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Season 6
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Episode 1
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38:36
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Jen Singer
A Right to be Children: The Importance of the Design Architecture The importance of architecture to Early Years is often misunderstood. The building is part of the enabling environment and needs to be designed to support lear...
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Season 5
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Episode 12
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36:23
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Sarah Ronan
Sarah Ronan is the director of the Early Education and Childcare Coalition (EECC) – an organisation made up of 35 members which represent children, parents, providers, the Early Years workforce and the wider business community.Like many ...
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Season 5
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Episode 11
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26:16
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Eunice Lumsden
There is a lot of concern about recently qualified staff who appear to find adjusting to the workplace a challenge and seem to have emerged with degrees which are low quality. As an employer of nearly 1000 staff, that is an issue, because my jo...
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Season 5
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Episode 10
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35:36
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan, Barbara Crowther and Jaynaide Powis
It seems strange that in 2024 parents feel the need to lead a campaign about healthy food, but with the help of the Children’s Food Campaign at Sustain, that’s exactly what they ...
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Season 5
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Episode 9
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40:27
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Ofsted (Wendy Ratcliff & Sam Sleeman-Boss)
Getting into your Ofsted Groove!In this podcast I talk to Wendy Ratcliff and Sam Sleeman-Boss from Ofsted about the Big Listen, refreshed handbooks, new complaints procedure and the research review series and how they are f...
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Season 5
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Episode 8
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39:11
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Alison Clark
Slow Pedagogy Slow pedagogy calls for compassion where we actively do something to address suffering. During Covid, the LEYF staff running our 15 nurseries for key workers had a call with me ...
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Season 5
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Episode 7
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30:13
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Sally Hogg
Baby, It’s Time Do you think babies are a focus of care and education policy enough? Do we have a baby policy blind spot? We think so! This is the subject of my conversation with Sally Hogg, ...
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Season 5
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Episode 6
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24:25
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Professor Al Aynsley-Green
It’s fitting that this podcast is being aired on International Children’s Day because Sir Al is a huge advocate for children over his very busy and noteworthy 50 years. His message is powerful, and he pulls no punches about his frustratio...
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Season 5
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Episode 5
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35:08
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Prue Leith
In this podcast with Prue Leith, we discover that Prue’s approach to life is summed up by her autobiography, “I'd Try Anything Once” and the more she talks the more you believe it! From posh white girl in South Africa to judge on Bake Off...
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Season 5
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Episode 4
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39:59
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Dr Ger Graus
“I see myself as the Benjamin Button of Education” In conversation with Dr Ger Graus. The power of play is recognised within the Early Years sector as essential to children’s development. Playing is a child’s ...
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Season 5
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Episode 3
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36:21
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Andy Keen-Downs
According to Barnardos, it is estimated that there are up to 310,000 children every year with a parent in prison in England and Wales. And for those children, this can lead to poor physical and mental health and significant trauma, espec...
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Season 5
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Episode 2
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32:29
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Matt Arnerich
My first Podcast of 2024 is an interview with the very delightful Matt Arnerich, Director of Brand & Comms at Famly – an Early Childhood Platform that bridges the collaboration gap between the grown-ups who raise young children. It supports...
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Season 5
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Episode 1
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28:14
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Salas Balde
Workout to Help with Salas… and Bring Kindness to the World Life is very serendipitous and leads to meeting some very engaging people who want to do something helpful with their time on this earth. Salas Baldas is one of thes...
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Season 4
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Episode 10
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24:07
Talking Early Years: In conversation with Sarah Ronan
Sarah Ronan, Director of the recently formed Early Education and Care Coalition (EECC) joined me to talk about the EECC. As a fellow Cork woman, she got a warm welcome!The ...
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Season 4
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Episode 8
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28:56
Talking Early Years: In conversation with Solitaire Townsend
Solitaire Townsend is a remarkable woman. She is one of the leading international voices on communicating sustainability. In 2001, she co-founded Futerra, one of the few UK communicat...
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Season 4
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Episode 7
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34:10
Talking Early Years with June O'Sullivan: in conversation with Dr Will Norman
It is not every day you get to talk to the Mayor’s Walking & Cycling Commissioner, but this is exactly who I am talking to in this podcast.
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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33:51
Talking Early Years: Why are Men in Childcare such a rare species?
For International Men’s Day on the 19th November 2012, I invited as many men as I could find who worked in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) to join us for a drink to discuss how we might build a London Men in Childcare Network.W...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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32:45
Talking Early Years: What have Food Banks got to do with the Early Years?
As an organisation, we have always been involved with issues of poverty and it was interesting to find that back in 1926 we were involved with the National Cookery School of Cookery which is a slightly different twist to what we are doing now. ...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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25:58
Talking Early Years: Celebrating 120 Years at LEYF
The Year That is 2023 – This year, we are proud to celebrate 120 years of LEYF. It’s been fascinating to reflect back on what has changed over that time (both good and bad) and what essentially remains the same. I consider children to be the li...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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1:08:14
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Stephen Gribben
I was introduced to coaching by Stephen Gribben many years ago. It was an interesting experience, and one I was not too sure how to make the best use of his generous pro bono service. However, I soon warmed to the idea of coaching which h...
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Season 4
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Episode 9
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20:08
Talking Early Years: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things - Food Poverty with Alethea and Cheryl
What have Food Banks got to do with the Early Years? This year, LEYF is celebrating 120 years of history. In doing so, we are reflecting on what was in order to look towards the future. As an organisation, we hav...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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25:58