Marketing claims and reviews on your school website
If your school markets places or services, your website needs to make marketing clearly identifiable as marketing and show reviews without leaving out negative ones.
Check this on my websiteWho it applies to
- Published on
- Every school and trust website
- School type
- Academies and maintained schools
- School stage
- All stages, from early years to sixth form
- Only applies to
- Any advertiser; schools only where they market places or services
- Does not apply to
- No school types are excluded
When it's due
Keep it up to date
There's no fixed date. Update it whenever something changes.
What's needed
Make promotional content on your website clearly identifiable as marketing, keep evidence on file for every factual claim about the school, and show any reviews fairly without leaving out negative ones.
What it must contain
2 parts- Makes sure marketing communications are clearly identifiable as suchMust: Required by law, statutory guidance or the academy's funding agreement.
- Shows consumer reviews fairly, without leaving out negative ones, if it publishes reviewsMust: Required by law, statutory guidance or the academy's funding agreement.
What the official sources say
Set out in 1 official source:
The CAP Code (full PDF)
2.1 Marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such.
Must: Required by law, statutory guidance or the academy's funding agreement.§ 2.1
3.46 Marketers must not publish consumer reviews, or consumer review information, in a misleading way in marketing communications. Publishing in a misleading way includes (for example): • Failing to publish, or removing from publication, negative consumer reviews whilst publishing positive ones (or vice versa) • Giving greater prominence to positive consumer reviews over negative ones (or vice versa) • Omitting information that is relevant to the circumstances in which a consumer review has been written (including that a person has been commissioned to write the review).
Must: Required by law, statutory guidance or the academy's funding agreement.§ 3.46
Show 2 more from this source
3.54 Marketing communications must not use the Royal Arms or Emblems in a misleading way that implies due authorisation or approval by a member of the Royal Family where none has been given.
Must: Required by law, statutory guidance or the academy's funding agreement.§ 3.54
20.9 Marketing communications for vocational training or other instruction courses must not give a misleading impression about the potential for employment that might follow.
Must: Required by law, statutory guidance or the academy's funding agreement.§ 20.9
Questions schools ask
Do school websites have to label marketing claims?
Academies and maintained schools must. It only applies to any advertiser; schools only where they market places or services.
What do we need to do about marketing claims and reviews?
Makes sure marketing communications are clearly identifiable as such; Shows consumer reviews fairly, without leaving out negative ones, if it publishes reviews.
When do we need to check our marketing claims?
Keep it up to date. There's no fixed date. Update it whenever something changes.
Where does the requirement for the marketing claims and reviews come from?
It is set out in The CAP Code (full PDF).
Recent changes to the official guidance
The official sources for this requirement don't publish dated change notes. We check them for changes ourselves.
We last checked these sources on 21 September 2026.
Is this on your school's website?
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Official sources last checked 21 September 2026 · register version 1.0.4