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Full list of Greater Manchester primary schools offering free breakfasts from next month

It's part of a new 'landmark' Government scheme.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 6th March 2025

More than 30 primary schools in Greater Manchester will be offering free breakfast clubs from next month.

You may remember that the Labour party announced on the final day of its Conference in Liverpool back in September 2022 its intent to give every child in England a free breakfast to start their school day, if the party was successfully elected, as prior to this, only schools in disadvantaged areas of the country could apply for a 75% subsidy to run a breakfast club.

And now, it seems that intent is becoming a reality.

That’s because from the start of next month, a total of 750 schools across all nine regions of England will be the first to kick-off a historic ‘breakfast club’ programme, forming a central part of the UK Government‘s ‘Plan For Change’.

All primary aged children in early adopter schools will be able to access a free breakfast, as well as at least 30 minutes of free childcare every day, in a bid to help support parents getting into work by dropping their children off half an hour earlier.  

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Schools are encouraged to offer healthy, varied, and nutritious breakfasts for children.  

By making sure that no child starts school hungry, the Government says this landmark scheme also has an important role to play in its commitment to ‘remove the stain of child poverty’, as out of the 180,000 children who will benefit in the early adopter schools, around 67,000 of them attend schools in what would be considered deprived areas.

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Greater Manchester primary offering free breakfasts

Bolton

  • Lever Edge Primary Academy
  • St Paul’s CofE Primary School, Astley Bridge
  • Devonshire Road Primary School
  • Kearsley West Primary School
  • Gilnow Primary School
  • Forwards Centre

Bury

  • Radcliffe Hall Church of England Methodist Primary School
  • Emmanuel Holcombe Church of England Primary School
  • St John with St Mark CofE Primary School

Manchester

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  • Oasis Academy Harpur Mount
  • Manchester Communication Primary Academy
  • Crowcroft Park Primary School
  • Pike Fold Primary School
  • St Agnes C of E Primary School

Oldham

  • Richmond Academy
  • Greenhill Academy
  • Alt Academy
  • Westwood Academy
  • Northmoor Academy
  • Whitegate End Primary and Nursery School
  • St Agnes CofE Primary School
  • Greenfield St Mary’s CofE School

Rochdale

  • Bamford Academy

Salford

  • St Joseph the Worker RC Primary School
  • New Park Academy

Stockport

  • Outwood Primary School

Tameside

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  • Greenfield Primary Academy
  • Hawthorns School

Wigan

  • St Mary and St John Catholic Primary School
  • Bickershaw CofE Primary School
  • St Stephen’s CofE Primary School

The schools were chosen from across England to ensure that the scheme ‘tests and learns’ from a variety of locations – including those that do not currently run a breakfast club – and all will receive funding to cover food and staffing costs.

Breakfast clubs have been shown to boost children’s reading, writing, and maths by an average of two months, according to the Government.

“Free breakfast clubs sit right at the heart of our Plan for Change, breaking the link between background and success for families all over the country,” commented Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, ahead of the clubs’ rollout next month.

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“Breakfast clubs can have a transformative impact on the lives of children, feeding hungry tummies and fuelling hungry minds, so every child begins the day ready to learn.”

Featured Image – gov.uk

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Manchester City could win the biggest prize money in football history this summer

Danny Jones Danny Jones 2025 FIFA Club World Cup $1 billion prize money Manchester City

Treble winners and four-time consecutive Premier League champions, Man City, could collect arguably their easiest payday yet this summer by playing just seven matches, as it has been confirmed that the total prize money pot for the 2025 Club World Cup is a whopping $1 billion.

We know you can’t hear us through the screen but just know there was an audible gulp.

That’s right, the winner of this year’s FIFA Club World Cup competition will not only get to don the same golden badge as Manchester City did last season but also be able to claim the biggest chunk of an equivalent £775m in British sterling should they emerge victorious.

Not only does this now make the upcoming edition of the international club tournament the most lucrative one in world football but it will also be the biggest single pot of prize money ever won in the sport’s history.

Set to take place in the US this summer from Saturday, 14 June to Sunday, 13 July, the 2025 Club World Cup will be a revamped version of the competition that had already been won once by City, once by Manchester United, and once by Liverpool.

It only began back in 2000, with Brazilian side Corinthians winning the inaugural edition and giants such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona going on to lift the trophy multiple times – Los Blancos boasting the most with five wins.

Cut to the present day and following major sponsorship and broadcasting deals being struck in recent months, with DAZN securing exclusive worldwide broadcasting rights as well as 24 games being televised by TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport).

For a long time, the significance of the Club World Cup has been put to one side and merely dismissed a series of glorified pre-season friendlies by teams and their supporters alike.

However, it’s fair to say that offering figures in the region of £100m or maybe even upwards of that for just four weeks of work, as Kaveh Solhekol puts it, will no doubt see plenty of teams change their tune. In theory, they don’t even need to win them all to get their hands on it either.

To put these figures into context, the total prize money for the 2022 Qatar World Cup was $440 million (approx. £341.8m); Argentina got almost £33m of that and the winner of this current UEFA Champions League campaign will earn around £21.1m on top of the roughly £15.7m they get for qualifying.

So yeah, it’s very big money…

Only Chelsea and Man City are among those representing the UK in the tournament this summer, and although the Blues haven’t been at their very brilliant best this season, you would bank on beating a lot of the big hitters contending for the Club World Cup title this year.

Major European names include record-winners Madrid as well as their Athletico; Bayern and Borussia Dortmund; PSG, Inter, Juventus and Benfica, not to mention the likes of Messi‘s Inter Miami – who have the home nation advantage – Palmeiras, River Plate, Boca Juniors and more from outside the continent.

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Although FIFA is yet to confirm exactly how much the winner of this £1 billion competition will take home, in the instance of the now record-breaking 2025 Club World Cup, it seems that it really is the taking part that counts.

Even if the estimate of £77.5m for the champion is vaguely accurate, that’s game-changing money for any team, especially Man City given the shadow of FFP, PSR and the now 130 alleged charges still looming over them.

Investigations and slightly nauseating levels of money on the line aside, as is often the case with football these days, City continue to become an increasingly massive and truly global club.

So much so that the Etihad Campus won’t soon just be a stadium and series of sports facilities but a year-round ‘entertainment destination’.

Manchester City reveal name, official partner and more images of huge new Etihad Stadium hotel
Taking the lion’s share of that $1 billion Club World Cup prize fund could go towards paying off a good chunk of ‘The Medlock’.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group

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A big US fast food chain said to be ‘much better’ than McDonald’s is coming to the UK

Danny Jones Danny Jones Carl's Jr. coming to the UK 100 locations Manchester

Fast food fans, feel free to get excited and potentially add another name to your rankings because a big US burger-driven brand hailed by many as ‘better’ than McDonald’s is coming to the UK. The rumours are true: Greater Manchester could very soon get a Carl’s Jr.

Carl’s Jr. is an American chain best known for chicken sandwiches and its trademark ‘charbroiled’ beef patties such as menu favourites like the ‘Famous Star’. You can even get star-shaped chicken nuggets.

First opening back in 1941, it’s very nearly as old as Maccies itself and although its profile is much smaller than that of the iconic golden arches, there are many who still firmly believe that it serves a superior product than the global conglomerate.

Well, hopefully soon you’ll be able to decide for yourselves as Carl’s Jr. is set to face off with McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Popeyes and all the other franchises that have made their way across the Atlantic over the last half a century or so – and it’s coming to Wales first.

In an announcement made via Restaurant Online, Carl’s Jr.’s country manager under parent company BRG (Boparan Restaurant Group), David Moffat said: “We’re looking at a steady rollout with a target of 100 restaurants plus in four years.

“We’ll open a number of corporate stores that we’ll retain as we go along and we’ll also be going into the sub-franchise market, which we hope to begin actioning towards the end of the year. We’ve had a lot of interest from big group franchisees already.”

Named after founder Carl N. Karcher, who set up the very first iteration of Carl’s Jr. after moving from his hometown of Ohio to California and purchasing a hot dog cart for $326, the brand then opened as a drive-in BBQ in January 1945 before opening its first real restaurants in 1956.

Although both he and his wife Margaret have long since passed away, there is a huge family lineage that has carried on the name and it’s only gotten bigger with each decade that’s passed.

So what separates it from its biggest and most dominant competition? Well, not only do lots of American diners swear by their charbroiled burger recipes over McDonald’s big a part of the Carl’s Jr.s over Maccies campaign front is said to come down to the chips – especially as they also do waffle fries.

Put simply by one user on X just last month, he believes “Carl’s Jr is the best fast food burger”. Current day Carl’s in the States now boasts everything from the classic burger and chicken to sandwiches, milkshakes, sides and desserts to a sizeable breakfast menu.

However, Moffat clarified that “the UK will probably have the smallest menu outside the US, which will be focused on the core products: burgers, chicken and fries. You’ve got to look at it culturally and in a way that ensures the brand has a broad, diverse appeal.”

For context, as well as five sites in Europe, there are locations in: Australia, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Russia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Judging by the endless expansion, Carl’s Jr. was always going to come to the UK, it was just a matter of when. This move was actually confirmed back in May 2024, when they reached a master license agreement with BRG to bring the brand to Britain, as well as the Republic and Northern Ireland.

carl's jr.s burgers
big mac
They have 1,600 restaurants in 25+ countries around the world to Maccies’ 41,800. Choose your fighter… (Credit: Carl’s Jr./McDonald’s)

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The first UK Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Cardiff is set to open in the St David’s shopping centre in April and a second site is due to launch somewhere in the south – you would presume London but who knows? – in time for the summer.

With that in mind, and given Manchester is the second city after London as well all know (sorry, Birmingham, we’ll die on this hill), you can expect at least one of the 100+ Carl’s Jr. locations to pop up somewhere in 0161.

However, before we get ahead of ourselves, we want to know if any of you have tried the chain before and do you agree that it’s ‘better’ than Maccies?

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Aditya Oberai (via Wikimedia Commons)/Ernesto Andrade/Willis Lam (via Flickr)

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