Dr Sergis and his Academy

I have been teaching students and helping them achieve well since 1995. On the 26th of September 2006, The Dr Sergis Academy Ltd was officially awarded its certificate of incorporation as a private limited company. In 2013, I acquired our current building at 52E Southbury Road, Enfield. It was an old Edwardian industrial building, and it was a painstaking process to restore it. My vision was of creating a welcoming learning environment that has a fully equipped science laboratory. With a team of dedicated contractors, it took just one year to complete. Today, it is a friendly, warm and quiet space to work in.

Why I founded it: The Problem I Saw in Mainstream Education

As a school governor for 11 years, and from my long experience in teaching in schools, I noticed that topics are taught in a hasty manner with no consideration of pace, breaking the cardinal rules of teaching. Teachers encourage students to remember formulae by using ‘memory triangles’ and memorising facts, instead of learning the underlying principles of the subject matter from first principles.

The danger in this superficial approach is that students soon lose interest in the subject as they fail to see its logical construction. My teaching philosophy is the opposite: as an educator at my Academy, I endeavour to inspire students to learn to think logically and question everything, which is the mark of a truly well-educated person.

I encourage students to apply the Scientific Method in understanding their world. I advise all students when studying any matter to ask themselves only what the facts are, and how they stand up to solid evidence. In this way, they learn to critically evaluate the subjects they study and use deductive reasoning. This gives them a better understanding, and they achieve better results in exams than simply memorising ideas as they usually do in schools, as well as gaining a greater appreciation of the subject.

Through my extensive research and long experience, I developed a unique and very effective tried and tested method of teaching called the ABC method. This method ensures the six important elements which are essential for exam and career success: concentration, understanding, confidence, self-discipline, self-esteem, and organisational skills.

My Ambition for the Academy

My motto and my mission is: Virtue is Knowledge; and Education Is Our Motivation. The Academy is committed to providing excellent tuition that is affordable for everyone in order to build success for all. My ambition is to provide:

• High-quality specialist tuition that is affordable: Maths, English and Sciences from KS2, KS3, GCSE, through to A-Levels and Degree Levels.
• An approved examinations centre offering a fully equipped laboratory where students can learn science by doing experiments, not just reading about them.
• A popular learning centre throughout North London owing to effective education, especially scientific and mathematically based.
• To make any field of knowledge far more interesting when studied deeply than when examined superficially in the usual way it is studied in mainstream schools.

How I was As a Kid

This is where my own character as a child shaped the Academy. I was not a child who was satisfied with being told what to think. I was the child who always asked ‘why’ and ‘how do you know?’. That innate curiosity, the need to question everything, to pull things apart logically to see how they work from first principles, and a deep love for the order and logic of mathematics and science, is what drove me. I was a deeply logical, inquisitive and independent thinker-the very qualities I now try to instil in every student at the Academy. I wanted to create the kind of education I wished I had received: patient, deep, evidence-based and respectful of a child’s intelligence.

In essence, I founded the Academy for the curious child in every classroom who is being told to memorise a triangle instead of being shown the beauty of the derivation.