Partners and children at Trinity

Our students’ partners and children are a valued part of the Trinity community, and we offer many different opportunities for families to experience and enjoy college life together.

Primarily, Connect is a community of people, and our purpose is threefold:

• To provide opportunities for fellowship for partners of those in full-time study at Trinity College.
• To provide support to one another, sharing our lives together and seeking God’s transformation in our lives.
• To be a means by which our members can be equipped for their future ministry, and develop their own unique callings.

Our heart is to be a place where God can prepare us for life after Trinity.

The Connect Week

There is plenty to dip into over the course of the week at Connect. You are welcome to come along to as much or as little as you like!

Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, we are operating a little differently from normal, however, every Monday morning, we meet in the Trinity Chapel to worship, study the Bible and pray together. This is also a great time to socialise together and catch up on any great local discoveries you’ve made!

We have various home groups that meet weekly either online or in person, which seek to provide deeper relationships with other spouses.

We encourage all Connect members to find themselves a couple of people with whom they can form a prayer triplet/quad. We believe that they can be a valuable place for sharing your life more deeply with a couple of other members of the Connect community. They provide a safe space to share and pray with each other on a regular basis. We hope that triplets begin to form in the first couple of months of college, although the exec is more than happy to support you in finding a group.

In addition, Connect runs ‘Tea & Tots’ on campus – a stay & playgroup for Connect spouses and pre-schoolers.

We run various events throughout the year, some for just spouses, some for students and their spouses, and some for children. Events we’ve run recently include movie nights, pub trips, scavenger hunts, park/beach trips and kids-free brunch.

How is Connect run?

Connect has an Exec which seeks to support all of its members. The current Connect Exec for 2021-22 are:

Steve Miller (President), Emma Wingrove (Vice President), Danny Brothers (Treasurer), Ally Fitter (Couples Ambassador), Lucy Gowers (Parents Ambassador) and Dave Bush (Spirituality Ambassador). Watch the video below to get to know them and hear what their roles involve.

Connect can only operate with the help of all its members! There will be many opportunities to get involved in the running of Connect over the coming year with a range of tasks. This may be setting up a room for a meeting, giving someone a lift to an event, baking a cake, bringing snacks for children, running PA for worship, helping organise a social, tidying up at the end of a meeting, running a children’s activity, helping to plan our programme of talks each term, helping to run a homegroup, leading worship, helping with prayers… the list goes on! There will be something for everyone, so we look forward to you getting involved! We have found in the past that the more you put into Connect, the more you get out of it.

If you’d like to find out more about Connect (as well as loads of helpful information about transitioning into life at Trinity) you can download the latest Connect Handbook here.

Connect also has a very active private Facebook group and Whatsapp chat for general support, socialising ideas, and local information and advice. You can also email the Connect Exec at connect@trinitycollegebristol.ac.uk.

Meals and worship with students

The daily chapel and weekly Communion services are open to spouses and once a term a student leadership team runs the all-age Light Experiment specifically designed to engage your whole family. Spouses and children are always welcome at mealtimes too, for only a small cost, and we have plenty of high chairs and child-friendly plates and cutlery (please note, this may be dependent upon COVID restrictions).

Further education for spouses

We welcome all student spouses to take advantage of their time at Trinity and audit classes for free (which means you would come to the lectures without having to do any of the assessments). If you are really keen and want to take classes for credit, anyone whose spouse is studying full time is eligible for a 50 percent reduction on fees for many of our programmes, whether you do a few modules or actually enrol on an accredited course.

On-site day nursery

We have our own Ofsted-registered day nursery on campus which, as well as serving the families of Trinity students, is open to the public, so it offers a great chance to get to know other families in the local area. Muddy Boots Day Nursery offers care between 8.00 am – 6 pm, and the children of full-time Trinity students are able to attend for a significantly subsidised fee.