GCSE Retakes - how?

[TapasGirl]

Hi, my DS achieved a 3 in his maths GCSE this year and will need to resit asap.

He is currently working as an apprentice but his training provider (private) is only able to offer a functional skills qualification and not GCSE maths.
I have tried to call some local schools/colleges to see if they can enter him for the exams if I pay (also will be paying a tutor) but they don't seem interested.
Can anyone offer any advice of the possible route I can take. Thanks

most people I know go back to the last school and they enter them as an external candidate

Why not the functional maths?

I'm afraid he was excluded from his last school but they agreed to let him take his GCSE's there as he was so near to the date. They wouldn't allow him back now to resit.

My understanding is that functional maths will not give the grade required to satisfy employers?

If he's been offered functional maths,it's likely to be because he achieved a level 2 or lower (as did my DS). The colleges say this means it's unlikely they'll get a 4 if they resit, so they do the functional maths to give the basics that the schools didn't teach them. Then they can take GCSE maths the following year.

I did look into whether my DS could sit gcse maths privately and if you google there are options to do this. However it's expensive and no guarantees they'll pass.

Start at the third post from NobleGiraffe in this thread for proper info. The earlier stuff is from 2015.