Talking Early Years with June O'Sullivan

 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 understand how social and emotional learning from the earliest age has a huge benefit on the long-term behaviour attitudes and values of young people across the world. 

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 a parent, nutritionist and working parent Sonia provides a very interesting overview as what we can do in nursery to support parents and challenge the food myths, fads, snacking, confusing packaging and the ethics of the food industry that can overwhelm us. https://leyf.org.uk/podcast-action-on-salt

 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 growth of Bikeworks, their response to COVID-19 and why access to bikes and cycling for children and families can help people build their inner confidence. https://leyf.org.uk/podcast-bikeworks

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 Ofsted, her passion for music and how she thinks the Early Years will continue to thrive. https://leyf.org.uk/podcast-gill-jones/

Children's mental health: In conversation with Kate SilvertonMum 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 and enjoy a conversation which also asks if we know so much about supporting children to become emotionally literate, why are so many Government policies rejecting all this research? https://leyf.org.uk/podcast-kate-silverton/ 

The Importance of Storytelling : In Conversation with Trisha Lee from Make Believe ArtsTrisha 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 children can tell you what an adverb is but are writing in a way that will never be listened to.  Listen to Trisha talk about storytelling as oral stories, poems, formal books and audio books. She reminds us that Gussin Paley read books like Charlotte’s Web to four-years-olds. She sees children able to understand much more complex ideas through stories. Because of COVID-19, she has recorded stories and poems with music to share with people on her website. 

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 operations were performed to remove children’s rotten teeth during 2018/19 as a result of tooth decay and high sugar diets – never has there been a more pertinent time to address this preventable crisis. Although tooth decay does not discriminate, it is strongly associated with deprivation and social exclusion says Dr Greenwall. This was made worse during 2020 when dental practices were forced to shut and many children were unable to attend appointments as well as their nursery. Alarmingly, almost three-quarters of children have not seen a dentist since the start of last year – despite recommendations that children have annual check-ups. Better dental hygiene taught at an early age will have long term benefits for children’s teeth, fewer nursery days lost and better overall health and wellbeing of our children. Click to find out WHY prevention is better than cure…

Talking Early Years with June O'Sullivan: In conversation with Julian GrenierI 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, serious thinking where we have the mutual respect to listen and consider each other’s points of view and counter the arguments rationally, honestly and openly... read the full post on leyf.org.uk 

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 Ottolenghi, they have changed the face of school food for more than 10,000 pupils already. As with LEYF’s Chef Academy, they too believe that children have an absolute and vital right to enjoy and learn about fresh, nutritious food - and most importantly, get excited about it! Equipping the next generation with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves and their families well, should be a central part of the education offered in both nurseries and schools. 

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 sending a pair of clean, good quality shoes to another child who will benefit and may be able to share them onwards.Having discovered Sal’s Shoes on Twitter when a LEYF nursery manager noticed that many of the children returning to nursey after lockdown were wearing inappropriate, badly-fitting or broken shoes, Sals Shoes kindly responded by generously donating 25 pairs of new shoes to Angel Pre School (LEYF) in South Westminster – all of which were greatly received.Shoe poverty is the kind of poverty that impacts children’s confidence and their self-esteem. Never has there been a greater need for children’s shoe donations and put a Spring in Their Step.Listen here to what CJ has to say…