A deputy headteacher who created a petition to remove Google school ratings and reviews for educational institutes has won a victory against the tech giant.
Justin Cowley, who works at Mendell Primary School in Bromborough, Wirral, sent a letter to Google this month demanding old reviews be deleted. Cowley said some Google reviews were more than six years old and did not show changes in more recent Ofsted ratings.
Google announced in 2019 that it would no longer let people leave reviews on schools, which were deemed “critical services”. However, the policy was not implemented uniformly – with some still able to leave school reviews.
And for those where reviews were closed, any published before were still visible. Cowley said this had led to a “search engine lottery” which risked the reputation of schools based on old reviews.
Cowley’s letter received 60 signatures from senior leaders across the country, representing about 50 schools.
In an automated reply seen by Schools Week, Google has now said that it will enforce a full ban and remove existing reviews for schools. The changes will be enforced from February 18.
Schools were told last week, in an email seen by Schools Week, that their “associated business profile will no longer allow reviews and ratings. This is a change for general education school listings in the UK and Ireland to prevent unhelpful or prank reviews.
“Existing reviews or ratings for your school will be removed, and users will not be able to submit new reviews or ratings.”
In a letter to senior leaders who signed the petition, Cowley said both the stoppage of new Google reviews and the deletion of old reviews means schools “will not be hindered by having reviews that are up to ten years old being the first thing that people see if they search for a school online.”
He said: “On one level it is a small win, but I think it is an important one. The whole purpose of doing this was to help parents make informed choices about their child’s education – and there are few decisions as important as that.”
Speaking to Schools Week, he added: “The whole thing was just about making a level playing field. So our school is judged, and other schools across the country, are judged fairly, and parents make an informed choice, not an outdated choice based on historic data.
“We’re just one little school in rural Wirral, in a small trust, but when everybody works together, we can get a good result, a positive result, from just believing and doing the right thing.”
The policy change relates to primary and secondary schools, but does not include pre-schools, colleges or universities.
A spokesperson for Google said: “We will turn off reviews on Google Maps for general education schools in the UK and Ireland due to consistent off-topic and harmful reviews on those places. This is part of our ongoing work to keep information on Maps helpful.”
Will this apply to all schools including private schools or just state?
All primary and secondary – both state and private. But not nursery or higher education. It appears that Google thinks that parents can do without reviews of those two but they still need those for pre-school and uni?
I am interested that most comments from schools seem to welcome the removal of Google reviews – something that every business (yes, I know schools are not strictly businesses) rely on and welcome as they provide a crucial window into their services for consumers. I would be grateful if anyone in the profession would read and comment on this article: https://www.helphound.info/2025/03/schools-failure-to-engage-with-google.html