Nurturing Futures: Shabnum Bi's Vision for Transformative Early Education

In this inspiring episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we welcome Shabnum Bi, founder and director of the award-winning Early Nurture Preschool in Birmingham, England. Shabnum shares her remarkable journey from becoming a single mother in 2001 to establishing a preschool that focuses on early intervention and attachment-based learning for children with special educational needs and disadvantaged backgrounds. She discusses the philosophies and daily practices that have earned her preschool an outstanding rating, emphasizing the importance of building strong relationships with children and their families. Shabnum highlights the critical gaps in early years education that motivated her to specialize in SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) and how early identification can lead to better outcomes for children. Tune in as she shares her insights on balancing leadership with nurturing care, the role of parents in early education, and her vision for future changes in the sector. With a commitment to empowering others and a passion for making a difference, Shabnum's story is sure to inspire listeners to value themselves and pursue their dreams in education and beyond.

Transcript

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 0:01

Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve. Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today I am joined by Chatnam Bhai. She is the founder and director of the Early Nurture Preschool in Birmingham, England and it is rated outstanding. Under her leadership's leadership, this preschool has won multiple awards and she focuses on early focus and attachment, focus, learning. And her focus is kids with send and disadvantaged background. So we're going to be talking to Shatnam about her school and how she does everything she does and why she does it and what she's up to and going to be up to. So, Shatnam, thank you for joining me.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 1:10

Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here today. I'm excited to share my journey with yourself today.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 1:17

Absolutely. Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

>> Shatnam Bhai: 1:21

Yeah, sure. I became a single mom in 2001 with a little baby boy. he was, aged three months and he was my purpose to pursue a career in childcare. he was my passion to improve myself and, the motivation to start a new academic path. I became a lunchtime supervisor in 2004 and started studying part time. This was the start of my academic journey. In 2006, I was given the opportunity to lead a playgroup for 20 years. I received several grade one outstanding inspections, winning the award in Leadership and education in 2020. And I was now recognised for my exceptional leadership skills. I began a passion and a desire, kept my head high and success became my destiny. And I began to shine within myself and I would regularly reflect on my strengths and my weaknesses and I would share my struggles on a daily basis as a leader, as well as balancing my son. And I wouldn't get vulnerable at times and if I did get vulnerable, then I would share and speak to other leaders. But I remained with my vision.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 2:31

Well, I know that Early Nurture has been rated outstanding. So talk about the philosophies and daily practices that led to that rating.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 2:40

the challenges that we had. So basically, I was managing Ambles and playgroup for 20 years. we had a change of leadership and I was forced to liquidize the company and that I had created and ran for 20 years. This wasn't easy, but it was a, it was, a struggle at the time to liquidize a company that was so close to my heart. But my dedication to success was already widely recognized. and it became a strength to survive and launch early nature Preschool. I became a director in 2022 where early nurture preschool was launched. I realised there was a gap in the market. most early years provisions were not specialising in early intervention and early identification. And that was something that I was specialising in in my previous Anglesey playgroup. And that was the reason we launched Early Nurture preschool and early years establishment so specialising in early intervention and early identification. Ah, it's a preschool, where we take two year olds that are yet identified and not identified and descend. We take working class children and we also take the disadvantage criteria as well as daycare.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 3:54

Okay, well you're also a strong advocate of attachment focused practice. So for listeners who might not know to explain what that is and what that looks like in a real preschool

>> Shatnam Bhai: 4:06

setting, okay, attachment is where we have very close formed relationship with our parents. We're community based. I grew up in the local community. I live a couple of miles away from where the preschool is so I know the families quite well. a lot of the children and the families I have taught over the years, I believe in Boldwin's early attachment theory where we form good attachments with children from earlier on. We have a key worker approach where we let children, we observe children for two weeks to see who they attach to the most and that becomes their key worker. and we're a very small setting. we've got 15 children in the morning and 15 in the afternoon. So we are able to give them that small group quality time and we also have parents on board as well. We make sure that we offer children secure stability and a safe environment where children can make progress and feel attached and safe.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 5:05

Well, I know that supporting kids with sinned and disadvantaged backgrounds is your central focus. So talk about the gaps in early years education that you saw that made you want to focus on that.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 5:20

throughout my journey we've realized that there's not many special needs nurseries out there that specialise in send. that was one of the reasons we launched Early Nurture Preschool. We do specialise in early intervention. I am a qualified senco, so I work very closely with children with send. I identify their needs at an earlier stage. Ah, we make the relevant referrals to outside agencies. We work very closely with health visitors. We look at the T roll development checks, look at the gaps and we also look at the strengths but we mainly focus on the gaps. So we look at the weaknesses. For example, majority of the time it'd be the primaries so it'll be the physical development, communication, language and personal social development that would be my focus. We make the relevant referrals to outside agencies. We form SENS support plans that are reviewed every 12 weeks and we also apply for extra funding from the inclusion team to support those children in a one to four ratio so they get that quality interventions. They also have a differentiated curriculum that specialises in their targets. and the targets are planned in relation to the primaries. So for example you've got turn taking ah begin to use language using objects of reference. They have visual timetables and they also have attention bucket time and they have language focus activities to help them focus and integrate into the mainstream settings.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 6:53

Well I know that early intervention is talked about a lot but rarely understood. So talk about the long term consequences if kids don't receive early emotional and developmental support.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 7:07

What we find is that children that have had good early intervention and earlier identification will make good progress and they will be able to get the support that they are required. For example some children will have a finalised education healthcare plan when they leave me or they'll have an SSPP finalised so there's money there for us to use to give them that extra support. Some children would get diagnosis on time. Children that require specialised provision, we'll be able to get that specialised provision come September. Children that are not identified often are left behind. They will not get the support that's required. And also time is a big factor so the diagnosis has a huge waitlist of two years before the NDP even pick up the referral. You've got the pediatricians that will give you an appointment every six months. So I think it's very important ah for children with send to have that early identification and that early recognition with the health visitors and the professionals straight away.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 8:13

Well as an inspiring leader and entrepreneur of the year. Talk about how you balance running a successful organization as well as a nurturing child care center.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 8:27

I think because I'm very empowered in my job and I love my job with a passion and I would like to encourage others to set clear goals and my goals and my focus is growth within myself and not flaws. I recognise and I celebrate big and small achievements. When I look at from where I started to where I am now, it's inspired me to even carry on further and that's one of the reasons I've shown an interest in podcasts. I would like to share my knowledge and my expertise with the wider world and encourage the new younger, generation to basically value themselves and be proud of themselves for waking up every day and not giving up. I did do the hard work myself. It's hard work. Life balance is hard. But you've got to remember, why did you start the journey to begin with? And my journey started because I was a single mom and I wanted to be a provider for my son and be a good role model. But now that I've achieved so much, I can truly say that I am, motivated, to inspire others and I would like to empower others. I do put in time from my own self. So, you've got to look at the fact that you've got to give your own time, your own effort and sometimes it means that giving up your own social life, giving up our own gym life just to make sure, that you are balancing your work life and your professional life together,

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 9:53

where you've received national recognition and you've represented the UK at the World Leader Summit in Oxford. So talk about the global perspective of childhood education, early childhood education that stood out to you.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 10:11

In 2004, I had an email from South Korea. Korea, the government team 22 delegate officials that wanted to come out and see early nurture preschool, look at how we deliver, the center provision, look at what is the outstanding policy, what does it encounter and how we deliver the Early Years foundation stage. when they came out, we had a successful tour. We looked at how we can produce a more productive, effective population policy in England, in the uk as well as South Korea. And that was my starting point of an interest in international education. I was inspired from what I saw, what I heard. I applied for the World Leaders Summit and I got in and I got recognised. I did do, a speech at the World Leaders at the University of Cambridge of, Oxford about my journey and how it's inspired to where I am now in relation to that. I did a visit to Dubai, a Cambridge nursery, again looking at scent provision compared to the uk. It was identified that SEND provision is not strong internationally, it is more stronger in the UK in the early years. the settings and the provisions actually support parents a lot better than the international countries. Some of the European countries, parents have to pay for the CEN provision and they have to deal with the whole CEN process on their own. Whereas in the uk, the settings ourselves, myself will support that, that process. So again, it's a huge interest of mine at the moment to look at what is it that's causing scent to increase. And it's not just increased in the uk, it's increased internationally. and yeah, so internationally I am looking at how else I can pursue and expand my career.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 11:54

Well, talk about what role do parents and caregivers play in attachment focus, early education and what can preschools do to better partner with families.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 12:07

I'm quite lucky because I grew with a lot of the parents and I'm from the local community. So a lot of the parents, we have an open relationship with the parents where we feel that the parents know the child best. So we have good review meetings with the parents on a regular basis. We see parents as the first educators and the main educators. We value parents feedback. we have a thorough process where we will identify the gaps to speak to parents about the importance. We also encourage parents to go on the Centre local offer website to look at what we are following and what is the process for send. and again it's about working with the parents and forming those trustworthy relationships. And it's very important and very vital to have parents on board. And at Early Nature Preschool we value the parents as much as we value the children and we value our community.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 12:59

Many early education professionals feel overwhelmed by policy, paperwork and pressure. So what advice would you give the early education leaders who want to lead with calm and purpose and confidence?

>> Shatnam Bhai: 13:17

I think you are correct. There is a huge workload. There is a lot of paperwork required. It's about being organized and setting yourself time schedules. So for example, with myself I will, every 12 weeks I know the same paperwork will be coming up for review. So every 12 weeks, I'll make sure that the paperwork's up to date. and I'm coming up for the reviews. Same with the planning. You got to make sure that you've put in that effort and it's all about being organized really and and being an exceptional leader and being a dedicated leader. You have to dedicate your own time as well. And I think that's what's important is being organized and being knowledgeable. and I think with other professionals and how I would encourage them is again it's about having a productive leadership team as well. So making sure you have a good staffing structure in place so you're not overloaded yourself as well. It's training others up as well that you can share the workload with. So for example, I have a deputy who will take on several of my roles so I'm not overwhelmed with the paperwork.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 14:21

Well, looking ahead, what changes do you feel that are most urgently needed in early years education. And how do you feel that we can get to those changes that are needed, especially with kids with additional needs?

>> Shatnam Bhai: 14:39

I think one of the changes that two year old development checks should be legal. There should be a legal requirement that every child should have a two year old development check check because at the moment it's up to the parents preference to have a two year old development check. But I think it should be compulsory because that's where the early identified needs will be highlighted earlier. So that's one of the things that I would recommend is the two year old development checks should be statutory and compulsory. M the second thing with the LES is that I think with children with additional needs, again the ndp, the neurological pathway referral procedure, it's two years, it's a very long process. parents start hearing I think until two years later and sometimes you don't even know if you've been accepted for that referral. So again it's looking at the clear pathway for these referrals and for these assessments. Could there be a six months waiting list instead of a two year waiting list? Because a lot of the time I would refer children to the NDP referral process and they will leave my setting without a diagnosis. So again I think it's looking at the diagnosis process years ago for the pediatricians that used to diagnose these children and it was a quicker process but whereas now I think children have got more complex needs. But however the pathway leading to the diagnosis has been stretched.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 15:55

If there's one thing that you wish that policymakers, educators and society understood about children before they start school, what would it be and why?

>> Shatnam Bhai: 16:06

One of the things I think is lacking as well is stay in play sessions. If we can have more stay in play sessions in our local areas, local communities, those needs can be identified. Earlier. I remember years ago we had the local shortstops that were community based and were offering stay in play sessions and those children had that support at an early basis. Yes, we have family hubs but not everyone knows about family hubs. It's something new that's come out, it needs to be a bit more advertised. and the second thing is that we lack specialised provision in the early years. There are no specially special nurseries or specialist preschools and we have a lack of special schools as well. So again I know that the government is looking at putting more money into mainstream provision and looking at more resource based provision, but we need to look at is investing more money into the PVI's as well, because the PVIs are, those PVIs that are identified in these children early. But sometimes I feel as though the money isn't really put into daycares, it's put more into school nurseries.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 17:09

Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 17:16

one of the projects I am working on at the moment is, I took a part part in, online virtual meeting with Singapore. And so what I'm doing at the moment is I'm doing a lot of, international online virtual meetings that I've not done before. So that's something new that I've pursued within my career. and I think that's something that I will continue to pursue. What I find is that people are. People on those, meetings are high professors, they're very knowledgeable. I'm learning a lot from them. And in the future I do, I wish that I will be visiting more international countries and taking part in academic research within the early years.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 17:59

Well, throw out your contact info so people can keep up with everything that you're up to.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 18:04

And the contact details are, we've got our website which is, www.earlynurpreschool.co.uk. we've also have an early Nurture preschool Facebook page. I also have a Shabsi, Instagram and a TikTok page where people can contact us.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 18:20

All right, we'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if there was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 18:28

I think that with the listeners, what I'd like to say is that just basically look at, look, value yourself and me as a person. I'm a true reflector. I always reflect on my journey. I look at where I started from as a single mom to where I am now. And the impact has been huge. I have come a long way m. And I've gained confidence with myself. and I can say that my recognition brought status, but that doesn't define who I am. But what remains in people's hearts is my honesty to deliver and my integrity. And that earns respect. And that has lasted me to where I am now. And that's the reason I am very passionate to continue to speak for the early years and make a difference to myself and the community.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 19:21

All right, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Chat Nambai talking about early years education. So if you or someone you know is very passionate about early Years Education. Please be sure to follow rate, review and share this episode to as many people as possible. Also, please be sure to go to www.craveball337.com and sign up for the Living the Dream newsletter and leave a review. Follow the show and keep up with everything Living the Dream and share the website to everybody that you know. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Shatnam, thank you for all that you do in the Early Years Education space. And thank you for joining me.

>> Shatnam Bhai: 20:05

It's been a pleasure. It's been an honor.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 20:07

Ah, for more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.craveballah337.com until next time, keep Living the Dream.