And here's another great wheeze - though this time not one cooked up at a teachers' conference. Pupils at top English boarding school Wellington College are to receive timetabled lessons in happiness, taught by some jolly teachers coached in positive psychology.
Head teacher Anthony Seldon said: "We are introducing classes on happiness. We have been focusing too much on academics and missing something far more important. To me, the most important job of any school is to turn out young men and women who are happy and secure - more important than the latest bulletin from the Department for Education about whatever."
Nick Baylis, a psychologist at Cambridge University, will oversee the piloting of the school's happiness lessons at the start of the next academic year. He said: "Positive psychology is a relatively new branch of the science, which focuses on enabling people to live lives which are flourishing."
Dr Seldon, a political commentator and author, said there will be one lesson a week for pupils, aged 14 to 16, in years 10 and 11. The classes will offer skills on how to manage relationships, physical and mental health, negative emotions and how to achieve one's ambitions.
It's a well-intentioned idea, but how much happiness can you learn in a timetabled module?
