Four independent schools trust Better Connected with their energy. Day and boarding, prep and senior, Half Hourly and non Half Hourly metering, and a two school group under common ownership. This is a genuine area of strength, not a single reference point.
Boarding houses that never close. Kitchens, pools and sports halls with demand profiles that look nothing like the timetable. Listed buildings with legacy metering. Term time consumption cliffs that confuse standard load profiling. And governance that rightly expects full visibility of the options and the reasoning before anything is signed.
Most energy firms treat a school as a small business with a large bill. We treat it as what it is: a multi-site estate with charitable governance, budget cycles set around the academic year and no tolerance for surprises in the operating budget.
For trusts and school groups the complexity multiplies. Procurement, renewal timing and reporting need to stay aligned across sites that sit under one ownership structure but operate day to day as separate schools. We manage exactly that structure today, in practice rather than in theory.
A full multi-site energy tender covering 29 gas supplies and 8 electricity supplies across the school's estate. Each site was assessed individually and compared across ten suppliers and three term lengths rather than treated as a single blanket renewal.
Better Connected manages energy supplies across both schools within the Newman Schools group, an independent two school group under common ownership spanning Leamington Spa and Stratford upon Avon. An 8 non Half Hourly electricity and 4 gas supply arrangement at Arnold Lodge, and 3 non Half Hourly electricity and 2 gas supplies at Stratford Preparatory.
A day and boarding prep school on 2 Half Hourly electricity and 2 gas supplies. Boarding settings carry consumption around the clock, which makes metering accuracy and contract structure matter more, not less, at smaller scale.
Every supply assessed individually across ten or more suppliers and multiple term lengths, with the full option set and our reasoning presented to leadership before sign off.
Our four stage process tracks the market against your renewal windows and budget cycle, so every recommendation arrives with the reasoning shown in full.
One person who knows your estate, your renewal windows and your budget cycle. Not a call centre. Bursars deal with the same consultant every time.
Line item validation against contract, metering data and network charges. Errors challenged and recovered, with retrospective claims where the evidence supports them.
When a supplier gets it wrong we run the dispute to resolution, evidence and escalation managed for you, so the bursar's office is not chasing call centres in term time.
Network and policy costs are rising sharply and now dominate many school bills. We manage capacity settings, band classifications and exemptions actively.
Independent metering arrangements as a recurring service. Boarding estates with Half Hourly supplies benefit most from data that is collected and checked properly.
Carbon reporting grounded in measurable reduction. If a green tariff is bundled REGOs with a premium attached, we will tell you before you pay for it.
Our Service Commitment is the master reference we give clients. It sets out how the advisory relationship works across all eight service areas, and it states our commission model plainly: an all inclusive advisory retainer built into the unit rate rather than a one off finder's fee, active for the full life of the contract. We send it personally, and we are happy for you to put it in front of your governors.
Complete the form and the director leading our schools work will send the Service Commitment to your inbox, usually the same working day. No mailing list, no follow up sequence.
Thank you. The Service Commitment will be with you shortly, sent personally rather than by an autoresponder.
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School and trust enquiries route directly to the director leading our schools work, supported by Sean Curgenven, our Energy Analyst. No handoffs, no account tiers. The person who prices your tender is the person who presents it to your leadership.
We manage energy for four independent schools today: Blundell's School in Tiverton, Arnold Lodge School in Leamington Spa, Stratford Preparatory School in Stratford upon Avon and Yarlet School in Staffordshire. Between them that covers day and boarding settings, prep and senior age ranges, Half Hourly and non Half Hourly metering and a two school group under common ownership.
The honest answer is that it depends on your estate and your starting position. The Blundell's tender delivered a combined saving of over £141,000 across gas and electricity. Smaller estates see smaller absolute numbers and the same discipline.
Through an all inclusive advisory retainer built into the unit rate, active for the full life of the contract and disclosed in writing before anything is signed. The full model is in the Service Commitment. We also publish how this industry's commissions work.
The Newman Schools group is exactly that structure at independent scale: two schools, one ownership, separate day to day operations. Procurement, renewal timing and reporting stay aligned across the group. The same model extends to multi academy trusts.