Introducing James Garcia

During my time at Archbishop Beck, I was the inaugural head boy and this brought me many opportunities from representing young people at the Liverpool School’s Parliament to visiting France, Italy, Holland and New York on school trips as well as featuring in the college concert band since year 7, way back in 2004.

I left Archbishop Beck in 2011 and went on to the University of Liverpool to complete a Bachelor of Laws degree. I completed my degree in 2014 and was successfully placed on the Bar Professional Training Course in Manchester, however the tuition fees for which were extortionate and with no student finance for this I opted for a different career in Law, other than that of a Barrister. However, I did become a member of one of the inns of court in London, the honourable society of the inner temple and have visited for dinner many times within the legal sphere.

I then found myself working in a civil law firm in Liverpool specialising in negligence, I became a Litigation Executive and worked with some of the top barristers in the country to secure a very successful award for one of my clients in a landmark case.

After around a year or so doing this, I decided to follow my passion of being a teacher, this is something which I had wanted to do from a young age and so whilst I was on a train back from London, after donating my bone marrow through the Anthony Nolan Trust, I applied to Edge Hill University to undertake a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in Secondary Computer Science and Information Technology. Now, you’re probably wondering why I chose this subject?

During my law degree my final year elective modules were surrounding Children’s Vulnerability in Cyberspace and Intellectual Property both of which a prominent features of my career. I began my PGCE in September 2015 and during this time completed a third of a Master’s Degree in Education, this masters is still ongoing but I successfully completed this PGCE in July 2016 and secured a job at Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College, one of the top schools’ in the country across all areas and have been privileged to gain further qualifications from the Raspberry Pi Foundation and also Google Education as a Google Certified Educator.

Having moved out of Liverpool for work, I now find myself a stone’s throw from Archbishop Beck and I am due to get married on 25th November this year, which I am very much looking forward to!

I would say that the mission statement of “only the best will do” is very fitting as you can see from my experience and qualifications, this college set me up for a very good career, gave me a lot of life experience whilst giving me a high standard of a catholic upbringing. A very supportive network of teachers and I would like to take the opportunity to thank them all for their hard work and dedication, being a teacher myself I know how much hard work and dedication this takes so thank you!

James Garcia
LL.B (Hons), PGCE,
Teacher of Computer Science