Objective  To explore the effect of metacognitive intervention training on mental health and English academic performance of primary school migrant children. Methods  Twenty-three grade fourth children (14 boys and 9 girls) from a rural primary school in Jiading District of Shanghai were selected as experimental group for metacognitive training, and 40 accompanying children (24 boys and 16 girls) in the same grade were selected as control group. These children completed the English subject, metacognitive questionnaire, depression scale, anxiety scale before and after the test. Results  The English academic performance of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group in the pre-test, and slightly higher than that of the control group in the post-test; the scores of the depression scale and anxiety scale in the two groups were the same. In the experimental group, the scores of self cognition, motivation and belief, strategy, planning, monitoring, regulation, and English academic achievement in the post-test were higher than those in the pre-test; the scores of depression scale and anxiety scale were lower than those of the pre-test. Conclusion  Metacognitive English strategy reading training can not only improve the English academic performance of migrant children, but also significantly reduce depression and anxiety, and promote the mental health of migrant children.