Primary pupils give out flowers to cheer up Waterlooville residents on Blue Monday

The pupils went to give out paper hearts and flowers with messages on them to make the local people feel happy.

When the children gave the hearts and flowers to the local people they seemed to really enjoyed it and even smiled.

One lady said: ‘I had a really bad start this morning and this has really made my day.’

The school decided to help improve people’s mood as it was ‘Blue Monday’ – which is meant to be the saddest day of the year - and pupils wanted to make it the happiest.

Blue Monday is always said to be on the third Monday in January. It was developed in 2004 by psychologist Cliff Arnall who came up with a formula for what people describe as the January blues.

The formula looked at things such as the weather, levels of debt and the time since Christmas.

Mr Arnall said: ‘I was originally asked to come up with what I thought was the best day to book a summer holiday.

‘When I started thinking about the motives for booking a holiday, reflecting on what thousands had told me during stress management or happiness workshops, there were these factors that pointed to the third Monday in January as being particularly depressing.’

The initiative certainly seemed to have the desired affect on the residents of Waterlooville.

One pupil said: ‘Some people were so happy and surprised that they even bought us sweets to say thank you. On the way back to school we put some paper hearts and flowers in people’s letterboxes. One house didn’t have a letter box, so I put the flower in the flower pot.’

Going out in the community made pupils feel really joyful because they knew it was was brightening up people’s day. Hopefully the school can do the same again next year.