Talking Early Years with June O'Sullivan

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan, Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram

This is the first hour I’d spent with Professors Chris Pascal OBE and Dr Tony Bertram since they stopped supervising my PhD, and the conversation was every bit as energising and engaging as ever. Affectionately dubbed our “National Treasures” by the study group, Chris and Tony are as generous as they are sharp. We set out to talk about ‘quality’, but it quicky widened into pedagogy, community inequality and the digitally-saturated world children now inhabit. What emerged was a deeply human, deeply practical account of what quality really looks and feels like for children, families and educators.

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Catherine Mole

SEND, Social Justice and the Question We Keep Avoiding Everyone is talking about SEND. Inclusion. Rising need. Pressures on schools and nurseries. But I am not convinced we all mean the same thing when we use those words. In my latest Talking Early Years podcast, I sat down with the wonderfully energetic Catherine Mole, CEO of Dingley’s Promise and one of the sector’s most passionate advocates for children with SEND, to unpack what is really going on.

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Salas Balde

Kindness Is the Work: A Conversation with Salas Balde for the Next Generation of Early Years Educators Every now and then, someone walks into your professional world and reminds you why you care so deeply about Early Years, community, childhood development, and humanity itself. For me, one of those people is Salas. He was last on Talking Early Years in December 2023, and even then, he was a burst of optimism and purpose. Since then, he has done so much more that I felt it was time to bring him back and let him tell the next chapter of his story. Listen now!

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Katy Potts

Is giving a young child unrestricted access to digital technology like handing them a vape? In my latest podcast, I sat down with digital safety expert Katy Potts to confront what many of us are reluctant to say out loud. There is no app to replace your lap. Listen to the podcast. This matters more than we think!

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Susan Santone

Social justice can sound lofty. Abstract. Something discussed in policy papers or parliamentary chambers. But the truth is, the seeds of fairness, compassion, sustainability and community are planted much earlier than that. They’re sown in the nursery, long before children learn the language of politics. And if we don’t plant them early, we risk raising a generation who see inequality as inevitable rather than something they can change. That was the heart of my conversation with Susan Santone, author of Reframing the Curriculum and one of the thinkers who most shaped my own PhD journey.

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Laura Lundy

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Barbara Rogoff

Learning by Living: Barbara Rogoff on Sociocultural Learning Listen now In this episode of Talking Early Years, I’m in conversation with one of the most influential thinkers in developmental psychology, Professor Barbara Rogoff, whose work on sociocultural learning in early childhood has reshaped how the world understands children and learning.

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Howard Roberts

This week on the podcast, I’m joined by Howard Roberts, a creative strategist whose superpower is curiosity. The real kind—the kind that asks why, digs deeper, challenges the status quo, and isn’t satisfied with surface-level answers. In the Early Years, we know just how powerful curiosity is. It’s the engine of learning, the spark of joy, the heart of play. But what happens when we apply that same thinking to big public issues—like how we help people truly feel why the Early Years matter?

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Sam Wass

I’ve just finished recording a podcast with Professor Sam Wass, and I’m still buzzing. He is Director of the Institute for the Science of Early Years at the University of East London. You may also know him from The Secret Life of Four-Year-Olds. His research is fascinating because it brings neuroscience right into the nursery, helping us understand what children’s brains are telling us about their experiences. Sam’s research brings neuroscience directly into early years settings. He uses microphones, cameras and stress monitors to measure how babies and young children actually experience the environments we create for them. This is not guesswork. It’s science showing us what their brains are trying to tell us.

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Catherine Lippe

Why Nursery Chefs Are Our Unsung Food Champions I recently spoke with Catherine Lippe, a registered nutritionist with more than 18 years’ experience in Early Years nutrition. She reminded me that nursery chefs are far more than cooks; they are “food champions” whose work directly supports children’s development and helps address wider issues of health inequality. With the new EYFS nutrition guidance offering clearer direction, there’s a real opportunity to place food firmly at the heart of nursery life. But guidance alone won’t cut it; we need training, funding, and recognition for the people who make it happen.

Talking Early Years: In Conversation with Peter Moss

Early childhood education is not a neutral or technical service—it is a deeply political space and this is the focus of my podcast guest Professor Peter Moss, the well-known and outspoken academic critic of the UK Early Years policies. He argues that every decision about how we organise, fund, and value the early years reflects our collective beliefs about children, families, and the society we want to build. Yet in England, political action often avoids asking the most important question: What is early education for?

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Ellen Sandseter

Risky Play or Not Risky Play - That is the Question! Ellen Sandseter is a well-known professor at Queen Maud University College for Early Childhood Education in Trondheim, Norway but we all know her for her thoughtful and challenging work on risky play. If you are interested in a conversation about risky play from a leader in the field, listen here!

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Sue Egersdorff

The Power of Intergenerational Nurseries In this podcast, I speak to Sue Egersdorff, co-founder of the intergenerational Ready Generations Nursery at Belong, in Chester. Her work is a powerful reminder that early childhood settings are not just educational spaces – they’re deeply embedded in the wider social and political landscape.

Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Greg Bottrill

Are children deprived of the opportunity to play?... ...is not a new question, but one that continues to be tackled on many levels. Greg Bottrill’s book 'Can I Go and Play Now?' remains a catalyst for the conversation and highlights the importance of adults as loving companions, advocating for children’s right to a childhood.

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's Laureate of the United Kingdom, a role created by The BookTrust to champion every child’s right to a lifetime enriched with books and stories – recognising the transformative power of reading in children's lives. Join us on the podcast and hear Frank talk about the rights of children to stories, books, libraries and what he would do with a magic wand.

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 term coined by Dr Jools Page and familiar to many colleagues across the Early Years sector. Introducing the phrase professional love gave permission to Early Years colleagues to use the word ‘love’ in the professional context. I was delighted to replace the word ‘care’ with ‘love’ because for many, the relationship we have with the children is pure reciprocal love. Creating loving relationships between staff and babies or toddlers is at the heart of nurturing positive early childhood experiences. A culture of warmth and sensitivity, paired with thoughtful policies and processes, can establish an environment where professional love thrives. This podcast concludes with me asking Jools what three wishes she has for the Early Years sector? Obviously, I am not going to tell you what she said, for this you need to tune in and find out!

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 uniqueness of the two-year-olds. To mitigate this, my colleague Louise Hannan, (currently researching the emotional environment for two-year-olds) and I have refreshed the original Twoness of Twos report to raise awareness about our role in ensuring two-year-olds thrive in every setting. Listen in to find out more. Download the report for FREE here - https://mailchi.mp/leyf.org.uk/twoness-of-twos

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 learning by creating the right environment and resources both indoors and outside. They are also integral to meeting the sustainability pillars; economic, social and environments in their design for example where they are situated, and how they support local communities and the local biodiversity. Nowadays, people are thinking even more about the towns and cities, the city of play and how to make them child friendly and position schools and nurseries as community catalysts. If you are interested in design and want to understand why it matters and how we need a strong relationship with architects, then listen here.

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 others in the Early Years sector, Sarah's journey is deeply personal. Her own experiences with inaccessible childcare, combined with her passion for women’s issues, led her to work with organisations like the Women’s Budget Group and Pregnant Then Screwed. She firmly believes that access to childcare is a core feminist issue – not only for women as parents but also for the predominantly female workforce in the sector. It also shines a light on the broader politics of care and its critical importance in society. Building a coalition in the Early Years sector is no small feat. It requires both time and resources, especially in a field as diverse and market driven as this. The first year of the coalition's work focused on laying the groundwork behind the scenes –aligning priorities and getting everything in place before officially launching its efforts. Key to this is producing robust research evidence and effective policy solutions, both of which require significant energy to drive the movement forward and, according to Sarah, this has been lacking in Early Years for some time. Her long-term ambition is for a movement that is not just a formal group of people but one that weaves together all the informal structures, dynamics and mechanisms that exist into a powerful catalyst that can become a force for change and therefore a force for good. Sarah raises the challenges of a coalition which are not just keeping the energy powered but also securing funds to create the communication content and lead the advocacy to get in front of the right people. It is these individuals who can help drive the change needed to create a fair and accessible service for all children and their families. So, have a listen to a master class on developing networks and coalitions in an Early Years that must do much more to share our powerful message with politicians, policy makes and the public.

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 job isn’t simply to recruit staff but to succession plan ( and I don’t mean that in a Brian Cox sort of way!). Therefore, these concerns which I am hearing about from many quarters are of concern. But are these facts or rumours and setting out self -fulfilling prophesies? Is it just university ranking snobbery? So, I asked Professor Eunice Lumsden, from the University of Northampton who heads up the Childhood Youth and Families Department and is responsible for a whole suite of degrees from undergraduate to postgraduate, that cover a raft of subjects including early childhood studies, education, social work to working with children. Listen to find out what this means for us as employers and university and college teachers!