Celebrating the International Day of Education With Olivia Bullock

To celebrate the International Day of Education 2025, we spoke to early years recruiter Olivia Bullock to discover more about the impact of early years. 

Topics covered in the video include

• Why Is Early Years Education Critical to a Child's Development?
• What Key Skills Do Children Develop in the Early Years That Form the Foundation for Learning?
• What About Their Motor Skills?
• What Qualities Make an Effective Early Years Educator?
• Why Is It Important for All Children To Access High Quality Early Years Education?
• What Role Does Creativity Play in the Early Years Foundation Stage?
• What Strategies Do Recruitment Specialists Use To Ensure the Best Candidates Are Placed in Nurseries?
• How Does Effective Recruitment Impact the Quality of Early Years Education?
• How Can Spencer Clarke Group Help With Early Years Education Recruitment?

Below is the transcript of the YouTube video. 

International Day of Education

Hi, I’m Olivia, I am an Early Years recruiter across Blackpool and Preston here at Spencer Clarke Group.

Why Is Early Years Education Critical to a Child's Development?

Early years education is so critical to a child’s development because it sets them up for later life, so for example the skills that they learn in the early years in nursery, reception, pre-school, it then sets them up for primary school, secondary school and further education. Also, it’s good for early intervention for any children with additional needs.

What Key Skills Do Children Develop in the Early Years That Form the Foundation for Learning?

Children learn lots of different skills during the different stages of the early years, for example personal, social and emotional development, communicating with other children, how to regulate their own feelings and also different language, they pick up different words when they’re around other children of the same age.

What About Their Motor Skills?

Children also learn gross and fine motor skills throughout the early years stages, they also learn how to do things like pick up a pen, how to hold a pen correctly which then supports them when they go to primary school and learn how to write their name.

What Qualities Make an Effective Early Years Educator?

So although an Early Years educator qualification may support you within the role, it’s not always required for each individual setting, it’s more important to find someone that’s proactive, nurturing, caring and supportive of the children and also the staff in the nurseries that you’re going in to support with.

Why Is It Important for All Children To Access High Quality Early Years Education?

It’s really important for all children to have access to quality Early Years education, just because children come from different backgrounds, so it’s important to close the gap between children that come from a disadvantaged background and also it supports with cultural capital within the early years setting, seeing what each child individually brings to a setting and how the other children can learn different skills from that. 

What Role Does Creativity Play in the Early Years Foundation Stage?

Children are able to respond to the experience at hand in their own way, it’s about objection handling, self regulation, how they manage their feelings and learning right from wrong and how to react to certain situations. 

What Strategies Do Recruitment Specialists Use To Ensure the Best Candidates Are Placed in Nurseries?

Personally when recruiting for Early Years educators to work within nursery settings, or school based nurseries, the first thing I look for is someone that’s proactive, caring, nurturing. We do a registration call just to initially gauge the type of person that’s applying for the role, any qualifications, any previous experience, but also it’s about doing an interview via Zoom or via a Teams call to get to know them a little bit better to go an delve a little bit deeper in to their experiences, what they’ve done in their previous employment and what they’re looking for going forward just to ensure that we’re supplying the right members of staff to work within the settings and also that the staff member meets the requirements for each individual setting as a whole.

How Does Effective Recruitment Impact the Quality of Early Years Education?

Effective recruitment allows me to place the right educator within the settings and also to make sure that the nursery can run smoothly for the day. It’s really important to ensure that the settings are fully staffed, that they’re meeting ratios and also that the other staff members in the nursery that are permanent members of staff are able to do their daily observations, their jobs, to be able to leave the room when needed and that the setting is still safe and still meeting ratios.

How Can Spencer Clarke Group Help With Early Years Education Recruitment?

We can help with your recruitment by supplying day to day staff members when you are short staffed on the morning, we do morning calls and we can support you that way also we can do tailored recruitment to your specific setting if you’re looking for someone on a long term basis or if you want to do a temp to perm option where you can take the candidate permanent on to your nursery based contract.

Get In Touch With Us

If you’re a nursery looking for staff or any Early Years educators, get in touch or if you’re a Nursery Practitioner looking for work, please call us on 01772 954200.

Who is Spencer Clarke Group?

Established in 2017, we’re an award winning and progressive recruitment agency based in the heart of the North West. Our reputation is built on trust, expertise and an unwavering commitment to exceed expectations. 

In 2024, we were named Recruitment Agency of the Year at the prestigious Recruiter Awards, an accolade we are extremely proud of. 

We operate in two sectors:

Private Sector

Public Sector 

In eleven specialisms:

Accountancy & Finance

Education & SEND

Construction, Trades & Labour

Healthcare, Social Care & Nursing

Housing

Corporate Functions & Business Support

HR & Workforce Development

IT & Digital

Property & Asset Management  

Planning, Development & Regeneration 

Highways, Infrastructure & Engineering