08 Apr 10

At first it seemed to be a pretty ordinary lesson. 'If an orange costs 37p how much do three oranges cost' Maths Consultant Claire Parsons asked a group of Year 6 pupils from North Huyton schools. Then things become a little less traditional: 'When you've got your answer, run to the other end of the room, search for the card it's written on and run back as fact as you can to collect your next mental maths challenge.'

This is SAT NAV 2010!

Following the success of last year's programme, the NHLC has brought together experts to enhance Year 6 pupils' Literacy and Numeracy skills in time for their approaching Key Stage 2 SATs.

Pupils had access to innovative teahcing methods during half term week and on Super Saturdays. The sessions took advantage of the impressive facilities at Christ the King Centre for Learning to give children extra help in the areas their teachers had identified. One session saw pupils writing and recording a short promotional film for LIverpool - which was then presented by a Scouse celebrity of their choice. From Gerrard to McCartney, pupils used cutting edge software to watch a personality speak they words they had recorded. It was an instant and impressive reward which encourahed the young people to develop the best possible product. Most of them didn't even realise the exercise was developing their adjectives and connectives!

Likewise in Numeracy sessions, pupils were asked to jump about and run around before becoming detectives organising increasingly complex shapes into categories. There was certainly an air of competition as children rushed to be the first to design a poster which fitted all of their shapes into a logical pattern.

'That's the beauty of how our SATNAV sessions work' explained NHLC Eduational Consultant, Carole Clancy. 'Information is presented in a style Year 6 pupils find accessible, understandable and, most importantly, memorable. Creating their own rap about Macbeth is so much more exciting than just ploughing through the book, it brings literature to life and makes it much more relevant to our pupils.'

Although the focus of SAT NAV is primarily on learning, it is also about fun and the fact that the sessions are always well attended, with Saturday morning television being missed in favour of Literacy and Numeracy lessons, suggests they are striking the right balance.

The results speak for themselves. One pupil commented: 'shapes are a bit confusing, some of them have got really long names, but I've been doing investigations and it's a lot clearer. It's not that complicated at all.'