The Scottish government has set out a bold and ambitious plan to close the poverty-related attainment gap by interrupting the cycle of deprivation and its impact on children’s progress. This is a complex and ambitious aim that has effective leadership - and learning about leadership - at its heart.

Some schools at home and abroad, however, are already achieving this. Last autumn, as part of a study visit to Dallas, Texas, I was fortunate enough to spend a few days learning about one such school, its pupils and the impact of leadership at all levels.

I met five-year-old Miguel*, who took a break from playing in the sandbox to speak to me. After we exchanged a few pleasantries, I asked him about a wall display that showed a human brain with the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, labelled in both English and Spanish.

“Oh, that’s real important,” he beamed, holding out a closed fist with thumb tucked in. “This is like my brain, the fingers on the outside are the cortex - that’s where I do my best thinking, you know, like words and numbers and solving puzzles. Inside here is my amygdala.” He opened his fist and wiggled his thumb. “The amygdala is the bit that sometimes gets a bit crazy, like when I am excited for Christmas Day, or if I am real mad at someone or sad. When this happens, I flip my lid.” At this, Miguel extended his fingers and told me that his prefrontal cortex stops working properly.

Miguel’s life chances are significantly better than those of his neighbourhood friends because he attends Momentous Institute, a remarkable school in Dallas’ Oak Cliff district. Momentous has around 250 children, 85 per cent of whom are selected because they fall below poverty indicators. Many of the children speak English as a second language, but the vast majority will continue to thrive and succeed in education long after leaving the school at the age of 12. They go on to outperform the state average and match the performance of private school students in all aspects of educational measures that the state of Texas deploys. For example, 86 per cent enrol in higher education, compared with 51 per cent across the state.

The school achieves this in three ways: a focus on social and emotional learning (and the role of the brain) to ensure that children are ready to learn; complete family engagement, including family learning; and research-based policy and practice.

A different culture

The school and therapeutic service staff work wonders, but such success is no easy feat. As executive director Michelle Kinder told our delegation: “We have ‘uh, oh’ moments all the time, but it’s how we deal with them that counts - we have to support one another and really show compassion to the children, colleagues and to ourselves.”

Leadership is a real strength at Momentous. If this article had been written a decade ago, it might have been simply a profile of Michelle and a critique of how her leadership has developed a culture of excellence and equity. But today, we can appreciate that the school’s leadership qualities run much deeper: in truth, every member of staff at Momentous is a leader, and everyone has an important leadership role to play.

There are no ‘heroic leaders’ at Momentous. Everyone leads and everyone is a hero in their own humble way

“We all work on the culture every day, it’s not something that just happens. We all lead it in the way we treat one another,” one staff member told us.

“It starts with the board of directors and travels through Michelle, the whole team, the kids and it comes home to our families.”

There are no “heroic leaders” at Momentous. Everyone leads and everyone is a hero in their own humble way: the culture of the place both enables and insists on this.

The team explained that, starting with the management team and spreading throughout the campus, everyone overtly models the “compassionate communicating” that lifts people during the “uh oh moments” and celebrates the unique contribution that staff and families make to the institute.

This drives excellence and enables children to achieve in the ambitious and robustly academic curriculum.

I saw in practice that every teacher at Momentous is a leader and a learner, a mentor and a mentee, which enables deep and sustainable growth and school improvement.

Momentous has proven so successful that it is now educating teachers and school leaders through conferences, professional learning events and collaborations with other schools: the Momentous effect is spreading across Dallas and the rest of Texas.

And Miguel? I asked him what he did when he flipped his lid. From his tray he took a rubber snow globe with the school’s logo on and gave it a vigorous shake. “This is just like what’s going on in my head - my glitter is all over the place,” he said. “I watch the ball and breathe real slow - in and out for four - and when the glitter in the ball has settled, so have I.”

The secret of success

“Settle your glitter” has become a metaphor for a way of dealing with challenges. And that’s the secret of success for Momentous students, alumni and staff - they know how to settle their glitter. This success starts with values-based leadership and an unremitting focus on a culture of social and emotional respect.

There are always cautions when trying to apply lessons from institutions in other countries. Schools don’t exist in vacuums and their successes are influenced by social, cultural and economic factors that may be different to those in Scotland.

However, there are lessons from Momentous that we might apply here. We know this because there are teachers and schools in Scotland that also employ social and emotional learning approaches, that develop deep and effective partnerships with parents and apply evidence-based practices and policies to achieve equally exceptional results. In other words, there are schools where there is effective leadership at all levels.

Perhaps we need to look to these schools as our influencers and examine their leadership approaches - so that they’re not outliers, but part of a new and wonderful norm.

*The child’s name has been changed to protect his privacy.

Jay Helbert is a lead specialist at the Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL)