St Mary's Catholic Primary School

At St Mary's we have created a concise set of St Mary's EYFS Curriculum end points that reflect the school's curriculum intent, Catholic ethos, outdoor learning focus and the Development Matters Birth to Three milestones and Early Years Goals. These focus on what our children will know, remember and be able to do by the end of their EYFS provision.

Nursery (2-Year-Old Provision) Curriculum End Points

Communication and Language

By the end of the 2-year-old provision, children will:

• Enjoy listening to stories, rhymes and songs and respond to familiar parts.
• Understand and respond to simple instructions and everyday language.
• Recognise and name familiar people, objects and experiences from their daily lives.
• Use single words and emerging phrases to communicate wants, needs, feelings and interests.
• Join in with nursery rhymes, actions and repetitive language from favourite stories.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

By the end of the 2-year-old provision, children will:

• Show an awareness of themselves as unique and valued individuals.
• Develop secure relationships with familiar adults and seek support when needed.
• Begin to recognise and communicate basic feelings such as happy, sad or upset.
• Play alongside and increasingly with other children.
• Show kindness and begin to understand how their actions affect others.
• Begin to make independent choices and develop confidence in new situations.

Physical Development

By the end of the 2-year-old provision, children will:

• Move confidently in a variety of ways including running, climbing, jumping and balancing.
• Explore and use outdoor spaces confidently and safely.
• Use their hands to explore, manipulate and investigate materials and objects.
• Begin to use simple tools such as crayons, spoons, scoops and paintbrushes.
• Show increasing independence in self-care routines such as washing hands, feeding themselves and dressing with support.

Literacy

By the end of the 2-year-old provision, children will:

• Enjoy sharing books with adults and independently access books.
• Recognise favourite stories, rhymes and songs.
• Join in with repeated words and familiar phrases.
• Make marks for a purpose and begin to give meaning to their marks.
• Notice familiar signs, logos and environmental print.

Mathematics

By the end of the 2-year-old provision, children will:

• Notice and explore numbers in meaningful contexts.
• Join in with counting during songs, play and daily routines.
• Compare quantities using language such as more, lots and same.
• Explore shape, space and measure through construction, puzzles and practical play.
• Notice simple patterns in the environment and through play.

Understanding the World

By the end of the 2-year-old provision, children will:

• Talk about themselves, their family and people who are important to them.
• Show curiosity about the natural world and enjoy exploring outdoors.
• Recognise familiar animals, plants and objects from their environment.
• Begin to understand differences and similarities between people, families and celebrations.
• Explore how things change and grow through first-hand experiences.

Expressive Arts and Design

By the end of the 2-year-old provision, children will:

• Explore a range of materials using their senses and imagination.
• Sing familiar nursery rhymes and join in with actions and movement.
• Create marks, pictures and simple models to express their ideas.
• Engage in pretend play based on their experiences and interests.
• Respond to music, movement, colour and texture with enjoyment and curiosity.

Characteristics of Learning at St Mary's

By the end of Nursery 2s, children will increasingly:

• Explore and investigate their environment with curiosity.
• Make independent choices in their play.
• Persevere when faced with a challenge.
• Show confidence to try new experiences and take managed risks outdoors.
• Begin to develop independence, resilience and a positive attitude towards learning.

These endpoints align with our existing Nursery Long Term Plan while also creating a clear progression towards our Nursery (3-4) and Reception end points.

Nursery (Rising 3s / Pre-School) Curriculum End Points

Communication and Language

By the end of Nursery, children will:

• Listen attentively to stories, rhymes and conversations and remember key parts of what they have heard.
• Understand and follow instructions containing two key pieces of information.
• Use a wider range of vocabulary linked to topics, stories and first-hand experiences.
• Speak in sentences of 4-6 words to share ideas, experiences and needs.
• Join conversations with adults and peers, taking turns and responding appropriately.
• Retell familiar stories, rhymes and experiences using increasingly detailed language.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

By the end of Nursery provision, children will:

• See themselves as valued members of the St Mary's community and know they are special to God.
• Select activities independently and sustain involvement in their chosen play.
• Follow classroom routines and understand why rules help keep everyone safe and happy.
• Name and talk about a range of feelings, including happy, sad, worried and angry.
• Build positive friendships and play cooperatively with others.
• Begin to resolve conflicts using words and seek solutions with reduced adult support.
• Demonstrate resilience, confidence and a willingness to try new experiences.

Physical Development

By the end of Nursery provision, children will:

• Move confidently in a variety of ways including running, balancing, hopping, climbing and negotiating space safely.
• Develop coordination through outdoor play, PE and active exploration.
• Use a range of tools safely and effectively, including scissors, paintbrushes, tweezers and mark-making equipment.
• Hold pencils and mark-making tools with increasing control.
• Independently manage personal needs including toileting, handwashing and dressing.
• Understand some simple ways to keep healthy through healthy eating, exercise and hygiene.

Literacy

By the end of the Nursery provision, children will:

• Show a love of books and independently choose to share stories.
• Understand that print carries meaning and that books have different parts
• Join in with repeated refrains, familiar stories and rhymes.
• Talk about stories, characters and events using newly learnt vocabulary.
• Develop phonological awareness through rhymes, syllables, alliteration and oral blending.
• Recognise their own name and begin to write some or all of it.
• Give meaning to their marks and use early writing in their play.

Mathematics

By the end of the Nursery provision, children will:

• Subitise small quantities to 3 and recognise familiar patterns.
• Count reliably to 5 and beyond in meaningful contexts.
• Understand that the last number counted tells how many objects there are altogether.
• Recognise numerals to 5 and match them to quantities.
• Compare quantities using language such as more, fewer and the same.
• Identify, describe and use common 2D and 3D shapes.
• Create and continue simple repeating patterns.
• Use positional language such as in, on, under, behind and next to.

Understanding the World

By the end of the Nursery provision, children will:

• Talk about themselves, their family and events that are important to them.
• Show interest in different occupations and understand that people have different roles in society.
• Recognise and celebrate similarities and differences between people, families and communities.
• Explore and describe features of the natural world using their senses.
• Observe change over time, including plant growth, life cycles and seasonal changes.
• Demonstrate care and respect for living things and the environment.
• Use topic-based vocabulary to talk about animals, growing, celebrations, people who help us and the seaside.

Expressive Arts and Design

By the end of the Nursery provision, children will:

• Explore, select and combine materials to create their own representations and models.
• Draw with increasing control and add meaningful detail to their pictures.
• Explore colour, texture, pattern and shape through creative experiences.
• Use role play and small world play to create and develop simple storylines.
• Sing a wide repertoire of nursery rhymes and songs from memory.  
• Respond to music through movement, dance and playing instruments.
• Express thoughts, feelings and experiences through art, music, movement and imaginative play.

St Mary's Characteristics of Effective Learning End Points

By the end of the Nursery provision, children will increasingly:

• Show curiosity, ask questions and investigate the world around them.
• Make independent choices and take responsibility for resources and learning environments.
• Persist with challenges and develop a "can't do it yet" growth mindset.  
• Use talk to organise their thinking, play and problem solving.
• Collaborate with others, share ideas and learn through exploration indoors and outdoors.
• Demonstrate readiness for the next stage of learning through confidence, independence and resilience.

Our end points are a clear bridge between our 2-Year-Old End Points, Pre- School end points and our Reception End Points. There is a clear progression pathway across EYFS.

For our Reception end points we didn’t want to simply restate the EYFS ELGs. When creating St Mary's Reception Curriculum End points we wanted to capture both the statutory Early Learning Goals and our unique curriculum drivers of Catholic Life, Outdoor Learning, Oracy, Growth Mindset and Community. These endpoints represent what our children will know, remember and be able to do by the end of Reception and as they transition into Key Stage 1. Based on our Reception Long Term Plan, the following provides a clear culmination of our EYFS curriculum.

Reception Curriculum End Points

Communication and Language

By the end of Reception, children will:

• Listen attentively in a range of situations and respond appropriately to questions, instructions and discussions.
• Participate confidently in conversations with adults and peers, taking turns and listening respectfully to others.
• Use ambitious vocabulary learned through stories, non-fiction texts, experiences and discussion.
• Ask questions to deepen their understanding and clarify information.  
• Explain their ideas, experiences and learning using full sentences.  
• Describe events and offer reasons for their thinking using appropriate vocabulary and conjunctions.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

By the end of Reception, children will:

• Know they are unique individuals who are valued and loved by God and as members of the St Mary's community.
• Demonstrate confidence when trying new activities and facing challenges.
• Show resilience and perseverance when difficulties arise.
• Understand and manage their own feelings and begin to recognise the feelings of others.
• Work cooperatively with others, building positive and respectful relationships.
• Understand rules, routines and expectations and explain why they are important.
• Manage their own personal care and demonstrate increasing independence.

Physical Development

By the end of Reception, children will:

• Move confidently, safely and with control in a range of physical activities.
• Demonstrate balance, coordination, agility and spatial awareness when playing and learning indoors and outdoors.
• Use a tripod grip when writing and drawing in most situations.
• Use a range of tools effectively, including scissors, paintbrushes, cutlery and gardening equipment.
• Form letters accurately and develop the foundations for fluent handwriting.
• Understand how healthy eating, exercise, sleep, personal hygiene and oral health contribute to wellbeing.

Literacy

By the end of Reception, children will:

• Read books matched to their phonic knowledge with increasing fluency and understanding.
• Recognise all taught phonemes and a range of digraphs and trigraphs.
• Blend sounds to read unfamiliar words.  
• Read and understand simple sentences and stories.  
• Demonstrate a love of reading through independent book choices and discussion.
• Write recognisable letters, words, phrases and simple sentences.
• Spell words using their phonic knowledge and begin to use some common exception words accurately.  
• Re-read their writing and explain its meaning.

Mathematics

By the end of Reception, children will:

• Have a deep understanding of numbers to 10, including composition and relationships within numbers.
• Subitise quantities to 5 confidently.  
• Recall number bonds to 5 and some number bonds to 10 automatically.
• Understand doubles and beginning halves within familiar contexts.
• Count confidently beyond 20 and recognise patterns within the number system.
• Compare quantities, explaining which is greater, smaller or equal.
• Recognise, manipulate and talk about shapes and patterns.
• Apply mathematical understanding to solve practical problems during play and everyday experiences.

Understanding the World

By the end of Reception, children will:

• Talk confidently about their family, community and the wider world.  
• Describe features of their local environment using first-hand experiences, stories, maps and discussions.
• Understand that people have different beliefs, traditions and celebrations and show respect for diversity.
• Identify similarities and differences between communities in Britain and around the world.
• Explain simple differences between the past and present.  
• Explore, observe and describe the natural world using scientific vocabulary appropriate to their age.
• Understand seasonal change, life cycles and some important changes in materials and living things.
• Demonstrate respect and care for God's creation through outdoor learning and environmental awareness.  

Expressive Arts and Design

By the end of Reception, children will:

• Use a wide range of materials, tools and techniques to create purposeful artwork and models.
• Explain their creative choices and evaluate their finished work.  
• Use drawing, painting, sculpture and construction to represent their ideas and experiences.
• Sing a wide repertoire of songs and nursery rhymes from memory.
• Perform songs, poems, stories and dances with confidence.
• Create, adapt and retell stories through role play and imaginative experiences.
• Work collaboratively with others to develop imaginative ideas and performances.

St Mary's Reception Learner End Points

By the end of Reception, children will:

• Be curious learners who ask questions and seek answers.
• Demonstrate confidence, resilience and independence in their learning.  
• Use talk effectively to think, explain, negotiate and solve problems.
• Collaborate positively with others and contribute to their community.  
• Show respect, kindness and empathy towards others.  
• Be equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for a successful transition into Key Stage 1.