Want to boost exam results in your school? Then make your pupils miserable. New research suggests that children who feel sad are more likely to perform better, reports The Times Educational Supplement (June 6).

Academics from the University of Plymouth and the University of Virginia in the US studied how pupils' mood affects their performance.

A group of Year 6 pupils was asked to complete a task while listening to music designed to induce happiness or sadness. The happy children struggled to pay attention to detail and performed worse in the test.

Small groups of Year 2 pupils were shown film clips of varying cheeriness - from the Bare Necessities song in The Jungle Book, to a sad scene from The Lion King. Those who viewed The Lion King outperformed all others.

Mope your way to high grades

New research suggests that children who feel sad are more likely to perform better in school exams

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According to the researchers, “sadness indicates that something is amiss, triggering detail-orientated, analytical processing”. Pupils feeling more positive might perform worse because they don't want to disrupt their good mood, or their minds may be elsewhere.

If sadness equals success, then Birmingham City Council might think twice about playing cheerleader to local GCSE students. Tony Howell, the strategic director for children, young people and families, has sent good luck cards to the city's 12,000-plus GCSE pupils in an attempt to boost grades. The council also posted encouraging messages on billboards, buses and trains.

Elsewhere, teachers in high performing specialist schools seem happy despite more work. Since 2004, 400 schools have achieved this status after taking on a second specialism or additional duties. A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers indicates that staff in two thirds of them had to do more work as a result. However, recruitment and retention of teachers has often improved.

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