A case study of a Hong Kong primary school's online after school pull-out intervention for “cross-boundary” students

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic impacted on schools around the world in different ways. In this school, students who are required to cross the border between Hong Kong and Mainland China daily to attend school, known as “cross-boundary students” were no longer able to do so due to stringent Covid-19 measures and the adoption of Mainland China’s “zero-Covid policy”. A pragmatic solution to this was the provision of an after-school pull-out intervention for targeted “cross-boundary” students. Through the case study research, it became clear that the intervention was effective in dealing with students’ academic needs, but that very little was done to address their non-academic needs during this time of online classes. The intervention promoted good opportunities for assessment and feedback and interaction opportunities between teachers and students, but less so for student to student interactions.