We made the decision, but are heartbroken

Buroo - it'll be fine. Remind yourself that if you hadn't got CH, you may have been somewhat disappointed but still over the moon that you got Hockerill.
Forget CH, don't talk to anyone about CH, just focus on Hockerill and before you know it your DS will be settled and won't even remember the issue about CH vs H.

Good luck, keep calm and celebrate that you have such a good school for your DS

I think you have made absolutely the right decision, I think SBS gives you the best of both worlds. I wish Hockerill was closer to us as in a few years time I would have loved DS to go there (specifically for the emphasis on languages).

If CH still have the uniform a friend of mine had to wear then oh boy did you make the right decision!

But seriously, it's not easy and you will have some regrets about the place you turned down. We certainly do, having turned down two Indies for a grammar, and a friend who was telephoned by the Headmistress and several mums from the Indie (her DD having won the top schol) but in the end went for the grammar feels even worse.

But consider;

(1) If its incredibly hard to choose between two alternatives then maybe it doesn't particularly matter which one you take.

(2) If you take the state school rather than the Indie you can almost certainly change your mind (subject to places and a very polite letter of refusal first time round - most important!). Whereas an oversubscribed state school isn't going to have places further on. You have made the best decision at this time. That's all you can do.

OP: I didn't look at your other thread since we are nowhere near to you and I know nothing about the schools you were discussing.
However, DS is in a SBS and I have to say that, if it is anything like ours and most of the others, yours will be brill.
Like you, we had applied elsewhere and had the SBS as second choice. We didn't get the first choice and were forced to go to our second choice. Several years down the line, I am sooo pleased with his school and am actually glad that we didn't get first choice.
It is different in your case because you are making the choice, instead of having it forced upon you, but remember the mantra "all shall be well".

Burro - deep breaths ,you'll feel better soon.
No school is perfect ,it's the anxiety and stress clouding your vision.
If any comfort ,my brother went to CH and it certainely was far from perfect .
I didn't say this earlier as he was there some 40 years ago ,so sure it's changed.
Even so ,be nice to yourself - I'm sure you've made right decision.

Hockerill... I should be so lucky!

I am sure your son will thrive there Burroo! and at least he won';t have to wear the CH uniform which is, you have to admit, quite strange! lol

No, in all seriousness, I think a child with the right mindset and a good background can thrive at almost any school. Esp with good parental support, which by the sounds of it, your son has!

You wouldn't have chosen the school you did if you didn't think it was the right choice deep down, so focus on that.

Burroo - its not everything but from the Sunday Tmes league tabes looks like Hockerill has better A level results.

Where I grew up there is a state boarding school and people literally mortgage themselves to bankruptcy to buy a house near it so they can send their DCs as day pupils.

You made a good choice. Hockerill is miles better than the fee paying school my DSs go to.

boohoo!

If you have nothing useful to add to the thread, BariatricObama, just leave it alone. You may not understand the OP's issue - leave it to people who do empathise.

OK, have just read up about Hockerill in the Good Schools Guide - it looks great, I especially loved the bit about being taught History and Geography in a second language. I didn't know any English state schools did Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIC). That's fabulous!

i am not being nasty (ok maybe a bit!) but really going round weeping and wailing about a blardy school when her child has got into a perfectly good one anyway is pointless.

Hockerill is one of the top performing state schools in the country and offers state boarding. You just need a bit of time to get used to the choice Burroo - around here if anyone had heard you were dithering over a Hockerill place they would have taken you down a dark alleyway and forcibly made you hand it over.

Stop being nasty, BariatricObama.

get over it

Is Hockerill a state school?