MPW or Cats London

[sagreem]

Hi Mommies. Thanks to this group a few weeks back. My daughter who turned 17 & is relocating to London with me needs to either do her A-Levels again due to the 1 year left in ZA school with MPW or she can do her UFP at Cats London & apply to uni next sept.

Question - Looking for some feedback on which is the better institution or does anyone know of somebody who went to either & what are their experiences. Also from experience does the UK Uni prefer students with A-Levels or UFP or it does not matter at all

Thank You again for all the support

[Austentatious]

I don't know UFP at all however MPW is a very well regarded, very expensive and very successful organisation. you should however bear in mind that a decent proportion of the kids there will have been expelled / asked to leave mainstream school or will have failed a levels previously / be on course to fail. There might not therefore be the most well behaved, bright and motivated group - it certainly used to be a last resort saloon for some students. it does however have some really great teachers and some kids will be there because they want to do subjects that their school doesn't offer. it's a very sophisticated, adult environment with kids who are very wealthy and live very independently (ie party hard)

[MollyHuaCha]

Another vote here for MPW. They treat people as students, not pupils.

[Needmoresleep]

Not heard of UFP. If your DD is aiming for an over-subscribed University course it might be worth checking on its acceptability.

MPW is one of several well established and well regarded tutorial colleges. As a PP notes, there are two main client groups. One is hard working students from abroad, who are seeking to gain good A levels in order to continue their education in the UK. The other is the party brigade who may not have achieved the GCSEs needed to continue through to sixth form in their private schools.

Different colleges (and Ashbourne, DLD and others will also be worth a look) will have different ratios and different ways of dealing with the issue. I would ask.

Never heard of Cats.

[catslife]

The UFP is a Foundation programme aimed at students educated outside the UK to bring them up to the standard needed for UK universities. The OPs dd could apply for a foundation course at a university directly via UCAS, but wouldn't be able to start until September 2018. The UFP does have a January start so ties in with students coming from countries where the school year ends in November/December. I am not sure whether colleges have a January intake for A levels (or not).
The London college that I know offering the UFP is this one ufp.uk.com/. It is unlikely that MNetters will have heard of it though.

[Ta1kinPeece]

MPW does indeed have the party brigade
who used to get barred from every pub in the Gloucester Road
BUT
Its an exam factory.
They will be made to knuckle down and get the results
and golly what results.
The various groups of students used to mix a bit but the standard of teaching was amazing.
And yes, you are a future adult, not a child
until you break one of the rules in which case you are made to feel about seven

[Austentatious]

Are you alumnus talkin? Roxannes on a Tuesday?!

[Ta1kinPeece]

Don't remember that one.
I was in the Hereford / Petrol Pump / Gloucester arms gang / days

[sagreem]

It seems that MPW does produce results, but I am worried about the type of students as I am shelling out hard earned money. I also got a option to send her to a David Game College to do her A Levels - Any thoughts on that one?

[Needmoresleep]

OP, perhaps earlier posters have not been too clear that their their posts that their experiences were over 30 years ago.

Times have changed...to some extent.

The market for private sixth form education had grown hugely. Lots more students, lots more colleges.

You need to start with your child. Your hard earned money will not buy you much if the college is selling something different from the education you want to buy.

It can be useful to focus on the next stage. Where does your child want to go to University? Overseas? Perhaps look for IB. Oxbridge/Imperial/LSE/UCL/medical school look for somewhere where students routinely get A/A*s. Or is the aim a respectable course at a non RG University. Or something vocational, arty etc.

It might also be useful to look at your child. Are they academic? Are they focused on doing well. If so I might steer towards a college that appeals to parents from the far east, who will have done their homework well.

Is your child less academic, social or easily distracted. You might want to swerve places that appeal to the international rich, and instead focus on somewhere with good pastoral care. You might also decide that they would be unhappy in a fast paced classroom full of bright and highly motivated kids.

As well as the two groups I mentioned above, we have known students who have changed their minds about what they want to study so have had to take a gap year to study for an additional A level in something like maths or physics. If this had happened to my DC, MPW, along with DLD or Ashbourne, would be my first port of call. (But there will be others.) The child we know who went to MPW, from a leading private sixth form, was very impressed by the efficient teaching.