The Squad

Some of our Trustees don their walking shoes for a 10k trek through the heart of London on 14th September – aiming to raise £2000 to support its work with learning disabled people.

The team are takin…

It's with great sadness that we announce the death of one of our long standing members.

Seth Hubbert joined what is now our Juniors Club when it first started in 1993, eventually moving on to the Vet…

We love introducing new activities to our members!

We were absolutely thrilled when Freddie’s Flowers kindly donated flower boxes to our Vets Club members.

Our members experienced flower magic on th…

We’re thrilled to announce that The Squad has been chosen as Orange’s new charity partner in the UK! Orange employees voted on a shortlist of nine charities and we won. This is the start of a year-lon…

Finally we were able to go out to the park!!

Last week when the weather improved we were able to go out and have some fun in the park.

We played with the frisbee, kickball rounders and we also wro…

This week we played Dobble with the young people which is a matching game similar to  snap. With Dobble we had to try to find an image shown on two cards. Each card in Dobble features eight different …

We are back!!!

We have been fortunate enough to be able to run online sessions throughout the lockdowns. However, last week was our first session of 2021 with our Squad members, and, we had such a wo…

We’re still up and running!

During the current Covid-19 crisis we have made necessary changes to how we work. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve downed tools; we are doing our best to keep serving our …

This year, we are going on a virtual Easter Egg hunt.

Now you can help The Squad whenever you shop on Amazon. It’s easy to sign up to the Amazon Smile scheme and select The Squad as your chosen charity. Or if you’re already a member, then please consider…

It’s volunteer’s week and we couldn’t think of a better opportunity to say thank you to our fabulous volunteers who give their time so generously to The Squad. On Thursday 6th June, three of our trust…

We've signed up with easyfundraising– the UK’s biggest charity shopping fundraising site. The site turns everyday online shopping into free donations for us with donations from over 3,600 online retai…

On Saturday 25th May we went to London ZSL zoo for Special Children’s Day, this day is organised for Special education needs children, with access to calm areas, easier entrances and British sign lang…

We have just held our annual carol singing event at the mainline stations.

This year, for the first time, both clubs were located at their own stations.

The Vets Club was at Raynes Park station. It'…

We hosted our second Squad Backgammon Tournament at the swanky RAC Club in Pall Mall, on 25th November. This is a major fundraising event for us with an amazing total of £7,484.95!

We were here thank…

Following on from the huge success of our backgammon tournament last year we are very happy to announce that we are having another one this year.

Put the date Sunday November 25th in your diaries. An…

On Sunday 15th July, we took our juniors group to the natural history museum, it was a great trip that all the young people choose. We had run a session 2 months before where young people picked what …

At the end of last term we were invited to Wandsworth Prep for a special event and two of our members came along. Here's the report from one of our members there...

We went to the school and saw the …

Last month we announced that our lovely Juniors Club volunteer, Clare, was preparing to run the Copenhagen marathon on behalf of The Squad. We were all rooting for her, even more so when we learned th…

The Squad Juniors Club started its term with a session that involved loads of laughter and giggles from the members. Oh my! It was such a scramble!

In our first activity, all were asked what they did…

Please support our fabulous Juniors club volunteer, Clare, who is running the Copenhagen marathon on Sunday 13 May to raise funds for The Squad. This is Clare’s second marathon and she has set herself…

Meet Keeley who runs The Squad Juniors club. She works tirelessly to ensure that our members’ needs are met, manages a busy programme of activities and a team of volunteers. Each club night takes meti…

The Squad wouldn't be able to run our club night, annual holiday or countless other activities without its hardworking team. All of our volunteers and trustees are unpaid and dedicate their free time …

The Squad is delighted to have been selected as Wandsworth Prep school’s charity partner for 2018-19. We were chosen by the children who voted for us after seeing presentations from three shortlisted …

One of our longstanding members, Ben, has lost his beloved grandmother.

We feel very sad for him and send all our thoughts to the rest of his family and loved ones.

We are so honoured that the famil…

In a first for The Squad, we had a big fundraising tournament that has raised an astonishing £6,070.05 which far exceeded our expectations.

It was held at the RAC Club, Pall Mall, London. It was host…

It's been an exciting autumn so far at the Vets' Club, both out and about around London and back at the John Innes HQ. We've also welcomed two new members from the Juniors' Club, and it's been fantast…

Are you The Squad's Champion backgammon player? Take part in our exclusive tournament  on 26 November to find out and help our Save The Squad appeal!

We are very proud to announce The Squad's debut b…

This week Juniors spent the first part of the session doing dress rehearsals for our show.  Meanwhile, our costume and props department upstairs accommodated last minute requests for show essentials, …

Squad's fundraising appeal continues on our Total Giving page.  

Unfortunately large cuts in funding over the past few years have left The Squad in a precarious position. Your donations will help us …

The young people at Squad wanted to hold a Halloween party this year, so we thought we had better start planning it! Tonight one group was tasked with making decorations and did an excellent job.

Mea…

Unfortunately large cuts in funding over the past few years have left The Squad in a precarious position. Your donations will help us keep our doors open while we continue to pursue more sustainable l…

Tonight the Juniors' drama project continued with members creating some fantastic costumes and props for the show.

Whilst they were hard at work, the rest of the young people relaxed with a games nig…

When we planned the programme this term, Juniors said they wanted to do some script-writing as well as some drama, so we thought why not combine the two?

Tonight we did some brainstorming of all the …

The Vets have just had a summer day trip to Kew Gardens, followed by a meal at Pizza Express in Wimbledon.

We travelled there by tube

After getting there, we went to the Hive. This was a really weir…

Tonight both clubs held a joint party to celebrate the end of term. But also to say farewell to two special people.

James Dellow has been the club leader for the Juniors (and before the Vets Club was…

The Vets Club was looking forward to a guided tour around the Wandle Industrial Museum, and learning about the industries and mills that had historically existed along and around the River Wandle in p…

On both 15^th June and 22^nd the club was able to get to the park!! 

Young people were so excited for the park and for some; it was their first time to the park with Squad. 

Young people choose the eq…

One of the Vets' favourite activities so far this term has been our evening stroll through Morden Hall Park. It was a gorgeous summer evening, with the sun just beginning to set as we gathered outside…

During this session group sessions from the beginning of term were continued.

Young people had two quizzes to get involved with. One was a picture round for films and TV which had up to 30 points ava…

Our last session of last half term included a party as planned by the young people. 

Young people were setting up the decorations and party equipment they had created the week before, whilst the rest…

At the Juniors Club this week, the members carried on their story writing session, looking at how they could turn stories into comics. The young people were given a template that they could follow or …

This week at the Juniors Club, one group of young people were involved in a cooking session where they made homemade salsa, guacamole and Spanish omelet. The members mashed the avocados with the lime …

This week the Juniors Club had three activities for our young members to engage with. These were:

• planning a Saturday trip
• drawing self portraits
• learning magic tricks.

The group planning the …

For our second week of term at the Juniors Club we made cookies and flapjacks, played basketball in the main hall, and had an art session upstairs.

Our basketball session was broken up with drills an…

Our first week back at the Juniors Club included spaghetti and marshmallow towers, and a picture quiz.

Young people created their own towers and it was great to see our members communicating and shar…

The schedule of activities for the Vets Club for the next half term has been published.

The next half-term's activities include:

• A visit to Southside House in Wimbledon
• A Circus Performance at th…

The Juniors Club programme for the next half-term has now been published. With three activities taking place at each club night there's something for everyone.

Click here to download the Programme.

Tonight we had a brilliant session at the Juniors Club celebrating Easter early. The members had a big Easter egg scavenger hunt.

Young people were broken up into teams of six with 12 clues to get t…

Tonight at the Juniors Club we had a great time making some brilliant Mothers Day cards.

Young people were given some templates that they could follow if they wanted, but our members were extremely c…

We had some great activities this week at the Juniors Club for our members to enjoy. With St Patrick's day coming up we had rainbow making and hat designing as well as smoothie making in the kitchen, …

Tonight at The Squad we had a really exciting session, as two local Merton councillors received a warm welcome during a visit to the Juniors and Vets Clubs. 

Katy Neep (Cabinet Member for Children's …

The Squad was mentioned in a full-page article in both the Merton Mencap and Adults First newsletters this month.

Ivana Orsinova, the Vets Club leader, provided some highlights from recent club night…

Eric Richardson, has been named as runner-up for the Merton Volunteer Partnership Volunteer of the Year 2016! Everyone at The Squad is very proud of his fantastic achievement. Eric was short-listed fr…

We are delighted that Eric Richardson, Deputy Club Leader of our Vets club, has been short-listed by the Merton Voluntary Service Council for their Volunteer of the Year Award! The winner will be anno…

This evening, the Vets Club has been visiting the Wellcome Collection in London.

There is a really interesting exhibit all about Tibet. It reminded us of when we had a yoga class.

Tonight, at the Juniors Club, we designed our own jigsaws! 

We are embracing the start of summer by making some healthy, not to mention tasty, fruit kebabs. Joshua was pleased to be able to help choose fruit at the supermarket so that he could have a kebab mad…

We have had an idea to make a Squad recipe book. Tonight we tried out a smoothie recipe!

We are holding a fancy dress night with the juniors tonight and have some great costumes!

This weekend, Squad Juniors went on a residential to Woodrow High House! We had a jam-packed few days of swimming, the nightline, whacky races and even a campfire. We made our own rockets which blaste…

The Vets club were all Clowns for the night with the help of circus clown Rico. We learnt balance, hand eye coordination, timing and technique by trying out hula hooping, juggling, plate spinning and …

We are pleased to announce that we are going to be having a party on Saturday 11th July this year to celebrate our 21st year. (Note that 11th July is a change to the original date due to problems with…

The Vets Club was delighted to have Sophie Martin, an Early Years Educator and Illustrator, come and run a pizza workshop for us! We used lots of yummy and healthy ingredients to make portraits of oth…

Last Thursday, the Squad went to Wimbledon station to sing carols.

We sang carols to all the people who passed by in the ticket hall going to and from the trains and tubes.

This is something we've d…

Our website was showing its age and we needed a new one.

We now have up-to-date information about our activities and the new site works much better on devices like smartphones.

This is just the begi…

The Squad is currently running an exciting radio project. Members of the Squad are able to record, produce and edit their own show. Topics discussed on the show so far have included bullying and autis…