School Holiday Activities
Thousands of free places available for school holiday activities.
The school holidays are coming
Manchester is offering thousands of FREE places for children’s activities over the school holidays. In addition to the activities, each place booked will include a FREE meal during the day.
You must be a Manchester resident. See below to find out whether your child is eligible to take part and to book sessions;
Step 3
Find and book your session on the Activity Finder. Filter by Location, Provider, Date and more.
Eligibility
Eligibility checks have changed and the registration system will automatically recognise those who are eligible, with a code no longer being issued.
Currently all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 can get free school meals whatever your income. But, if you receive one of the qualifying incomes (see below) you will need to register for benefit related free school meals in order for the registration system to recognise that your child is eligible for a school holiday activity place.
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- The guaranteed part of Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (if your annual gross income is £16,190 or less and you don’t get Working Tax Credit)
- Working Tax Credit run-off after you come off Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit that you applied for on, or after, 1 April 2018. As long as your household income is less than £7,400 a year after tax, not including any benefits
You may also qualify if you are an asylum seeker, or if a child receives any of these benefits directly, instead of through a parent or guardian.
Booking guidance
In order to book your place, users are required to have a Manchester Active Go account. Manchester Active Go is a new way to manage your health and activity across Manchester and will facilitate your bookings for sessions you’re interested in. If you have not created an account you will not be able to book any activities.
To create your account, please click here and follow the advised steps.
Once your account is set up, please scroll to the bottom of the page, or access the Activity Finder here and follow the below steps to book your space:
You can filter your activities by:
- Location
- Provider
- Date
- and much more
Manchester Active Go
In order for the system to automatically check your child’s eligibility for free holiday activities you need to make sure that your Go account is up to date and all your information is correct.
The system will automatically run checks against your child’s;
- Surname
- Forename
- DOB
- Postcode
It is very important that all this information is correct and up to date.
2025-26 HAF Report
Manchester City Council’s ambition is to provide high quality youth, play and participation services and sustainable outcomes for children and young people and the delivery of the HAF programme is a key part of this.
Funded through the Department of Education the HAF programme is a targeted service supporting some of our most vulnerable young people and primarily focused those on means tested free school meals. In Manchester we also support children and young people in priority groups such as children with special educational needs and disabilities, cared for young people and young carers.
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Find an activity today
Find a wide range of activities across Manchester - including swimming, fitness classes, sports and holiday activities - all in one easy place.