ICS, OHS or ad hoc online tutor for GCSE retakes from home?

[fresh]

Hi, DS2 (16) made a mess of his GCSE's and found himself at a local college on a Level 1 course doing Functional Skills as a result. He now wants to leave college and retake three GCSE's from home - Maths, English and Physics - aiming for a C grade to add to his one other C grade so he can apply for a Level 3 Art and Design course next year (was offered a place on L3 on strength of portfolio last year, but it was conditional on 4 x c grades).

Looks like we have a choice of ICS, or Oxford Home Schooling if we want to do online courses. But we also have a local centre where he could get ad hoc online tuition to support his own study. He can also sit his exams there (3at in Bristol).

Anyone have any experience of either of these routes? I guess the ad-hoc option relies more on his own discipline to work through the exam coursebooks on his own, but I don't know exactly how ICS or OHS work - do they issue extra learning material or do they just give you the workbooks you can get yourself anyway, and wait for you to do the assignments when you're ready?

Any experiences much appreciated!

[fresh]

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that (this has all happened very quickly!), I'll check it out

[Saracen]

Sorry, I have no experience.

However, I wonder whether you are in touch with other HE families in Bristol? I understand there are many of them, and since your son is doing fairly popular subjects, it wouldn't surprise me if there may be tutor-led home ed study groups he could join. So that might be another option to look at.