Caroline
I think I remember you from FTC!!!
I did groundschool with Bristol, it really is excellent. Even better you can stay over there if you want to and just come here for the course and exams - believe me the difference with the FTC groundschool is like night and day, ask any guys who went with FTC - not many have even finished yet!
As for Scotland - I live here at the mo. The only school for ground school is Glasgow Nautical college. You can go either full or part time there but I've heard mixed reports on the place so do a bit more digging around before going there. I did and on the back of that went for Bristol distance learning in favour of glasgow full time.
So the rumours are true then!!! When did they finally go?
SK