ABSTRACT
In the 2014 National Curriculum progression in reading is driven by the challenge of the texts children read. There is no set of reading skills that grow steadily more challenging. Instead, the same broad skills and competencies are applied to texts that gradually increase in challenge. The books children will read at school can be divided into different purposes depending on where in the curriculum they will be used, what they will be used to teach and who they will be read with. There will be books that children have chosen themselves and others that have been chosen by an adult. There is a strong case to be made that once a child can decode fluently, they should be given the freedom to read whatever they wish in their independent reading. Children benefit from the time and space to make their own choices and follow their own interests.
