Page updated: 26 August 2025
First year students (with the exception of international students, Foundation Year students, and Maths students who are asked to arrive early for a pre-term course) are asked to come into residence on Wednesday 1 October from 10am (by 4pm at the latest). The following day there are a number of meetings and events which you will need to attend.
Parking is available in Mare's Run for you to use.
Maths students are asked to arrive in College on Sunday 28 September. Information about the pre-term course can be found in the letter which will be emailed to our Maths Freshers. Further details about the course will be sent to you nearer the time.
International students are invited to arrive from Monday 29 September. Further information about International Freshers' events can be found on the International Students page.
Our Accommodation Manager will send you an online form to book your arrival. If you do not receive this email, please check any spam/junk folders, otherwise email accommodation@girton.cam.ac.uk. On this form you will also be able to order bedding and other items that will be in your room when you arrive. Should you wish to purchase a College gown, there will be a sale during Freshers' Week at Girton.
If you arrive earlier than expected you will be charged for the additional nights before your tenancy starts at the same rate as charged during term.
The JCR is the undergraduate student community, and the JCR Committee are a group of elected students that represent you!
They have their own website, which explains who they are, what they do and how they will be welcoming new students.
A very warm welcome to Girton College! We’re thrilled that you’ve joined our community, and we want to assure you that this will be an exciting, transformative time filled with new experiences, friendships, and opportunities.
I’m Gracie - one of your Welfare Officers at Girton! I am a third year English student.
I’m Orlando, a third year BioNatSci student and am also excited to be working with Gracie to boost welfare and be a friendly face to go to if you need any help!
We have been the Welfare Officers since Easter term and so far we have been busy supporting the new Wobble Week! We helped provide a week of unwinding activities and events to help with exam term stress. This proved to be very popular, so we will be running it again this year (Michaelmas and Easter term). As Welfare Officers we also organise the marriage formal and the termly petting zoos! We are beginning to organise your College families.
Throughout the year, we’ll be organising various events and initiatives designed to promote your wellbeing, help you settle in, and connect you with others. Whether it’s through welfare hour or just a chat over coffee at schlub, we’re here for you. Remember, no question is too small, and no issue is too insignificant. If you ever feel overwhelmed, homesick, or simply need to talk, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to make sure you feel at home at Girton.
You can find us in the Welfare Office during welfare hour but I’m sure you’ll see us around College so don’t be afraid to say hi! Or message us via email (jcr-welfare@girton.cam.ac.uk) or on Instagram (@girtonwelfare).
Hope to see you all soon, and we can’t wait to meet you!
A warm welcome to Girton from your College Chaplain. I hope you get to know you in one way or another in the course of the year. Since joining Girton as Chaplain in 2020, I have found the College to be a welcoming and kind community, as well as a place of exciting endeavour and opportunity. I’m confident you will find that too.
As Chaplain to the whole College, I’m here to be a supportive presence for anyone and everyone in our community - to help you with any matter of personal concern, not simply on issues that might be labelled ‘religious’. I am here as a friendly face and an experienced listener - a confidential and non-judgmental ear when it’s needed, someone to encourage you, someone who is in the College world and understands the pressures on you, but is also outside of the assessment system. In addition, of course, I am here to help anyone engage with the spiritual dimension of life – whether you belong to a faith community or are perhaps trying to make sense of those moments of intuition and awareness that don’t seem to fit into anybody’s system.
As a priest in the Church of England, I am here for any College members who are Christians or who wish to explore Christianity, to help you on your journey of faith. However, it’s also my role to support members of all faiths, and if you belong to any other faith community I’m here to help you negotiate the relationship between your life of faith and your College life. I can also put you in touch with various representatives of other faiths in Cambridge, and will gladly represent the needs of the various faith communities that make up our College family.
I am also responsible for the life and worship of the College Chapel. The Chapel here at Girton provides us with an oasis of calm in the midst of a hectic term life, a place of peace and depth, and a space to be yourself. There are regular services of Christian worship during term, and the Chapel Term-card contains all the details you need to know from term to term. All are welcome. Make sure you get a chance to hear Girton’s first-rate choir, too, who lift our worship in Chapel Sunday by Sunday. If you’re interested in getting involved in Chapel life in any way, please let me know and we can chat about what you want to do. We are always appreciative of help as we cultivate a friendly, dedicated and inclusive community.
Girton also has a multi-faith prayer room which you can access from the Porter’s Lodge, and for which I am jointly responsible along with the Junior Bursar.
Away from Chapel I also work professionally as a jazz saxophonist and pianist, and am the Artistic Director of Girton Jazz – a pioneering scheme of workshops and concerts bringing some of Europe’s top jazz musicians to Girton. So, I’m always happy to connect with any jazz musicians and enthusiasts!
Please feel free to contact me at any time, stop me in the corridor (I’ll usually be wearing a clerical collar) or simply follow the sound of jazz coming from my room, D4A. You can knock on the door at any time. I work part time, but am in College regularly during term time. The warmest welcome to you all.
I hope to see you soon.
Tim Boniface
Dear Girton student,
First of all, congratulations on being confirmed at Girton College! I have no doubt that, when you come here, you will find it to be a vibrant, welcoming, and inclusive community where you will very quickly feel at home. I am the Director of Chapel Music at Girton and, at this time of year, a big part of my job is making sure that all new Undergraduates and Postgraduates know that we are on the lookout for new singers to join our chapel choir for the forthcoming academic year. You can contact me at any time between now and when you arrive in order to talk about the possibility of your joining us, although I'd love to hear from you sooner rather than later! Zoom meetings and auditions are entirely possible if preferred.
Girton choir is now one of the best chapel choirs in Cambridge with a rapidly-growing profile. We undertake at least one international tour each year, having most recently been in Czechia (2025), Portugal & Spain (July 2024), Italy (July 2023), Germany & Austria (2022), Italy and Singapore (both in 2019), Israel & Palestine (2018), Portugal (2017), Canada (2016), and Hong Kong (2015), and make weekend visits to major British cathedrals with a trip to Lincoln cathedral planned for the forthcoming year. Sadly, our tour to Mexico in 2020 had to be postponed, but we undertook a very successful and enjoyable domestic tour in July 2021. In addition to Radio broadcasts (our most recent one being Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3 last December) we have also made a CD recording each year for the past seven years having made two in June 2021 and July 2021, and one each in July 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. These are released internationally and have received great critical acclaim; our 2020 release entered the worldwide Classical Charts at no.9 and was nominated for an International Classical Music Award, while our 2024 release reached no.8. You can listen to them here.
The choir sings two weekly services but the workload is often divided so that the average time commitment is just over five hours per week. There are around twenty-six singers in the choir each year and our social ethos is strong, relaxed, and friendly. You can find out more about what we do on a weekby-week basis by visiting our pages on Facebook (The Chapel Choir of Girton College, Cambridge - UK) and Instagram (girtoncollegechoir), and lots of our recordings can be heard on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, etc. If you are interested, please do feel free to contact me at any time (gw377@cam.ac.uk or nota1cambiata@hotmail.com) and do let me know if you are planning to visit Girton at any point and we can arrange an informal chat about singing in the choir. I'll look forward to hearing from you!
Best wishes,
Gareth Wilson, Director of Chapel Music, Girton College, Cambridge