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For some, happiness is a state of mind. But for students of a posh private school on the outskirts of London, it's a mandatory course.

Last year, Wellington College – founded by Queen Victoria in 1859 in honour of the Duke of Wellington – added a required course on happiness to its standard curriculum.

Drawn from the research of Nick Baylis, a professor at Cambridge University and the author of a well-being manual called Learning from Wonderful Lives, the program aims to increase the happiness of its students by teaching them to, in Prof. Baylis's words, “channel negative emotions” and build “healthy and creative partnerships.”

Students are also taught the merits of a good night's sleep, exercise and decent nutrition, as well as the downside of drug abuse.

Anthony Seldon, headmaster of Wellington College, says he introduced the program because he felt that his students' education was incomplete.

“Children need an owner's manual so they can manage themselves: manage their minds, their bodies, their emotions, their relationships,” Dr. Seldon told The Guardian.

“People come out of schools with no understanding of what anger is, what depression is, what anxiety is. They don't understand the importance of silence and stillness, of seeing what's there in the mind.”

The program has changed the image of Wellington from that of a breeding ground for dour military recruits to a school where the students exude a certain joie de vivre. Its success can also be seen in the spawning of like-minded programs in other schools across the country.

Richard Layard, an economics professor at the London School of Economics and the author of his own happiness manual, Happiness: Lessons From a New Science, is now rolling out well-being courses for 11-to-13-year-olds in Manchester, Hertfordshire and South Tyneside.

Brett Popplewell is a freelance writer based in London.