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An inspiring, outspoken speaker, author, podcaster and regular media commentator, June O'Sullivan MBE is Chief Executive of the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), one of London’s largest and most successful charitable social enterprises, operating 42 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.
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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 are doing. Indeed, they managed to get to meet members of parliament to share their manifesto with them. In this podcast I speak to Barbara Crowther, Children’s Food Campai…
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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 feeling about the Ofsted Academy and the future of Ofsted. While there are some things they cannot answer yet, like how will Of…
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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 at 3pm every day. I looked forward to our chats and it wasn’t long until they we talking about how the reduction in numbers of children, time to play, less cur…
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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, Senior Policy Fellow at the Centre for Research on Playing Education, Development and Learning better known as PEDAL. Why has this issue become so important no…
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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 frustration over the failure of our country to take seriously the importance of children, and particularly those in the Ea…
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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, food dominates Prue’s career. Her passion is undimmed as is her patience with the stupidity of politicians. Sh…
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“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 right and is our main teaching tool. As Friedrich Froebel said so eloquently back in 1837, “Play is the highest expression of human developme…
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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, especially as some of them will have witnessed some of the criminal activity or even the arrest of their parent. It is…
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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 around 6,000 Early Years providers and families to communicate, share information, run their business and lea…
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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 these people. I heard about his work from a friend of mine who attended his workouts during Covid lockdown and then I discovered …
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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. Our organisation then was known as the City of Westminster Society of Health and was helping parents to le…
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My guest, Stuart Lewis, CEO of Rest Less, began to think about another response after conversations with his dad about the length of retirement. He noted that his dad would have spent 25 years in retirement which is enough time to rethink a career. I totally understood that because my own Dad only stopped driving his taxi aged 75 and probably would…
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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. We wanted to create a place where we could learn from the men who worked in Early Years about how they were exper…
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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. Dr. Will Norman became London's first Walking and Cycling Commissioner in 2016 and now leads the Mayor’s work to make the capital’s streets safer for walking and cycling, enabling thousands more Londoners to ch…
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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 communications consultancies to specialise solely in sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. She has worked with senior management on internal and external …
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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 Early Years sector is often criticised for not always speaking with one voice, a consequence of being part of a very fragmented sector. The Coalition has been developing over th…
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Talking Early Years: Celebrating 120 Years at LEYF
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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 litmus test of society and my reflections support this. Listen in to my interview reflecting on the LEYF his…
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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 has remained with me and today we now put as many staff as possible through the Level 3 Diploma in Coaching. Sinc…
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Talking Early Years: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things - Food Poverty with Alethea and Cheryl
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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 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 …
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June kicked off this year’s podcast chatting to the well-informed Krupesh Hirani, London Assembly Member for Brent and Chair of the London Assembly Health Committee and the Health Inequalities Committee.June O'Sullivan
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Listen as Teresa Heaney, CEO of Early Childhood Ireland, explains how the Irish government has agreed to a number of positive actions following the publication of their evidence-based strategy, called First Five.June O'Sullivan
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June has been using the word, ‘pedagogy’ for many years and is now beyond delighted that LEYF can employ Pedagogy Coaches to support its nurseries understand how to embed pedagogy in their daily practice. Listen to June chat with Siobhan, Konstantinos and Ricky, who explain the role of a Pedagogy Coach at LEYF and how it helps to builds a quality p…
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Celebrating the publication of their new book: Social Leadership in Early Childhood Education and Care: An Introduction, June and Mona sit down for a frank discussion about social leadership. By narrating the leadership of those who already lead with a social purpose in Early Childhood Education and Care, we can encourage more conversations about s…
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Do you enjoy listening to an honest, funny, down to earth conversation? That sums up June's chat with serial social entrepreneur Karen Lynch. June met Karen many years ago when Karen was invited to rescue Belu Water which was in debt and its future was looking unsustainable. She stayed, turned it round and left it last year in a good place able to …
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Why is child poverty not on the agenda? It’s a horrible situation that doesn’t just affect the child but the wider society. In this podcast I am discussing the issue with Katherine Hill who is the Strategic Project Lead for the London Child Poverty Alliance.June O'Sullivan
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Whilst filming on-set with her newborn son, Charlotte Riley became very aware of how the lack of childcare was detrimental to the careers of so many women and men working in the film industry. She soon recognised that the kind efforts to support her bringing her baby on set could work for the lead actor but it was not an option for the hundreds of …
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Time to Put Empathy at the Heart of Pedagogy June got to know Helen Garnett when she met her at an Empathy Lab event and was enthralled by her description of the word ‘empathy’. It was a light-bulb moment. June soon realised that both children and adults were not born with a given level of empathy. On the contrary. It is developed throughout each o…
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It was when June was talking at a conference about community engagement where she met Professor Norma Raynes. She is a lively, impassioned speaker who asked the question – why do we exclude the old from nurseries and school? Does their experience, knowledge and understanding count for nothing? She told of the organisation she founded to address thi…
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Leslee Udwin is a film maker and founder of the organisation Think Equal. She is on a mission to achieve a global system change In Early Childhood Education through social and emotional learning based on empathy, equality and inclusion. In this podcast Leslee talks passionately about her journey and her remarkable energy to persuade everyone to und…
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We all agree that child obesity is a complex issue and addressing it can seem overwhelming. Therefore, partnering and learning from others is crucial. June's conversation with Sonia Pombo, ranges from discussion on salt "the silent killer", salt in hot chocolate, subtle ways to reduce salt and the importance of an Early Years chef to be trained. As…
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It was a chance conversation with Jim Blakemore that led to the beginning of what has now become a strong relationship between LEYF and Bikeworks and has encouraged two wider conversations between the two organsiations. Have a listen to June in conversation with the two founders of Bikeworks, Jim Blakemore and Zoe Portlock as they discuss the growt…
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Gill and June became friends under the most usual circumstances. June was very fed up with Ofsted and the attitude they had towards the Early Years sector. Gill was appointed the Director of Early Years and she listened. She heard what the sector was saying and has been listening ever since. Have a listen to Gill talk about her fourteen years at Of…
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Children's mental health: In conversation with Kate Silverton Mum to two young children, journalist and children's mental health advocate, Kate Silverton shares her ground-breaking new approach to parenting under-fives that helps to make family life so much easier with her best-selling book: There’s No Such Thing as ‘Naughty’. Listen to the podcast…
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The Importance of Storytelling : In Conversation with Trisha Lee from Make Believe Arts Trisha is passionate about Gussin-Paley but she is even more passionate about the rationale for storytelling and why its so important. She rails against the schoolification which squeezes out storytelling in favour of learning the structure of writing so now chi…
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Listen to June O’Sullivan talk candidly with Dr Linda Greenwall – founder of the charity, Dental Wellness Trust about the urgent need for free supervised tooth brushing programmes to be implemented across Early Years settings and schools. According to the latest figures by the Local Government Association which show nearly 45,000 hospital operation…
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Talking Early Years with June O'Sullivan: In conversation with Julian Grenier I was very pleased to talk to Julian Grenier, Headteacher of Sheringham Nursery School in Newham. He and I have always had a mutual respect for our work, but we have not always seen eye to eye and I hope that continues. Great practice comes from robust debate and critical…
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June O’Sullivan meets Chefs in Schools CEO, Naomi Duncan who is leading a new revolution in school food, recruiting and training chefs with pedigrees from some of London’s top restaurants such as Nopi & Noma to take on food and food education in schools. Backed by leading chefs and restaurateurs including Henry Dimbleby, Prue Leith and Yottam Ottol…
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June O’Sullivan meets CJ Bowry, CEO of Surrey based charity, Sal’s Shoes which has distributed an impressive two million pairs of shoes in the UK and across the world in a bid to tackle the rise in shoe poverty. In a world whereby 300 million children are often walking without shoes – risking foot injures and disease, the charity avoids waste by se…
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Join June O’Sullivan in discussion with the Book Trust’s CEO, Diana Gerald who helps transform lives by getting children and families reading. With a deep understanding of the role that education plays in creating opportunity, which is at the heart of BookTrust's work, Diana talks about how she got the best job in the world and how challenging it c…
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To be honest, cultural capital is not the usual conversation piece. But it is both a conscious and unconscious part of our everyday lives. Now that Ofsted has introduced the concept into the new inspection framework, cultural capital will become more conscious for many people based on the essential knowledge that children need to be educated citize…
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June O’Sullivan meets Dr Lala Manners who has enjoyed a long and varied career in the field of Early Years movement studies and physical development: as a teacher, trainer, educator, consultant, researcher, author and broadcaster. Here, they debate the importance of practitioners engaging in physical development and overcoming the fear by getting ‘…
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June O’Sullivan meets leading, award-winning expert in Early Years education, Laura Henry. Join them for a cuppa where they discuss the power of literacy for children’s long term learning and development, multi-generational relationships and the inspiration behind Laura's book; JoJo and Gran Gran which has become the first British-made animated TV …
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Who Says Giraffes Can’t Dance? Well, Giles Andreae did! He also reminded us that there is a Rumble in the Jungle and a Commotion in the Ocean and if you look hard enough you will find Captain Flinn with the Pirate Dinosaurs in Smuggler’s Bay. Giraffe Can’t Dance reached the top five most best-selling books in lockdown, not surprising because poor G…
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In this episode, June O'Sullivan, the CEO of London Early Years Foundation talks about how she reformed from being a charity many years ago into a social business to deliver specific impact. We discuss the seven elements of the LEYF pedagogy that really addresses the rights of children and how June measures it with the LEYF Pedagogical Development …
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