Within the context of Decree Law 176/2014, English was introduced as a compulsory and curricular subject area in the 1st Cycle of Basic Education, in the 3rd and 4th grades. Thus, in the different public schools, foreign language learning started to take place from the 3rd grade, i.e., at 8-9 years. From that moment on, the offer of English as a Curriculum Enrichment Activity (AEC) has not made much sense for many of the School Clusters at a national level, so many School Principles have opted not to offer it (Silva, 2017, WEB).

In this context, where there is the provision of English language awareness programs at preschool age, it is assumed to be relevant to offer an English language teaching program in the early school years, such as PEPPA - Primary English Practice Program for Ages 6-7, a pilot project that presupposes the integration of English into the curriculum of 1st and 2nd grades in the 1st cycle  of Basic Education (Primary School) of the geographical area of ​​Maia, in order to: a) respond to the void created by the curriculum integration of English in the 3rd and 4th grades and, concomitantly, devaluation of the non-curricular offer of English in the immediately preceding grades; b) address the problems detected in the Eurydice report, where it is stated that Portugal is one of the few countries where foreign language teaching begins later (Viana, 2017, WEB); c) promote the articulation of the subject area of ​​English in the different educational cycles d) foster the cognitive and socio-affective enrichment of children, but also recreate the professional skills of the English teacher and the full teacher by the challenges a true collaboration demands.

Taking into account current legislation and the documents "Perfil dos Alunos à Saída da Escolaridade Obrigatória” (Martins et al., 2016), “The Future of Education and Skills” (OECD, 2018), “Competencies for Democratic Culture” (Council of Europe, 2016), “New Vision for Education” (WEF, 2016), among others, we present this research project whose main objective is the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a curriculum English project for the first years of schooling in the Municipality of Maia, in an established partnership with this institution, Porto Polytechnic School of Education and the Ministry of Education.