DillyDally
Doesn't really mean much: we each help students who have been to other schools (including Oxford), some disenchanted with those schools others just wanting a fresh point of view or didn't like the teaching in one subject. Some of our students do brush-up courses at those same schools. Apart from the core, approved course how a student who is struggling passes is very individual, and there are many options for non-approved supplementary training.
Island Hopper
The best advice here yet is (as I always counsel) visit a few schools. Check out the people and the atmosphere, talk to some students. Look at the notes as well (note 4-Forces old notes were used for a long time by a couple of other schools, whose students have told me they were considered so bad by the instructors that they were rarely referred to. This may be the sole origin of the bad reputation of 4-Forces, and has probably been addressed. In the beginning of JAA all schools had problems with notes, so the problem was not unique, these just had not been updated as all the rest have been. If they are using the old notes ask them how they have been developed over the last 3 years).
Do read the recommendations here too, but read around about a few schools, don't fix on one (if it is distance learning you are after we at BCFT cannot help yet, but obvious options are Bristol, GTS and Oxford).