Education secretary John Swinney has today raised the prospect of ending the ratings system in Scottish school inspections.

Scotland’s chief inspector later confirmed that the idea was being explored by inspections and curriculum-development body Education Scotland.

Mr Swinney made his comments at a school leaders’ conference in Edinburgh, organised by the EIS teaching union, after a Glasgow headteacher asked if scrapping the ratings element of school inspections was an idea he supported.

Chief inspector interview: Inspection body ‘closer than ever to teachers’

Where is inspection most stressful? Is it Scotland or England?

When the inspector doesn’t call: Should a school wait more than a decade for an inspection?

Under the current system, a school’s performance in various areas is rated at one of six levels: unsatisfactory, weak, satisfactory, good, very good or excellent.

Mr Swinney stressed that it was not up to him whether the system changed, stating it was a matter for the chief inspector of education. But after the Glasgow head suggested that ratings distracted from the content in school-inspection reports, he said: “I think you’ve got a point.”

He added: “I think there is merit in that argument. The chief inspector is here, she’s hearing every word that I’m saying, so she can reflect on it.”

Mr Swinney said the current “richness” of school-inspection reports - absent in past eras - could become lost if people focused predominantly on the ratings. He added that he understood the “temptation” among educators to “gravitate to ‘What did you get?’” questions, rather than in-depth discussions about a school’s performance.

The education secretary stressed that he had spoken with people who had been through inspections and found it a “tremendous professional learning experience”.

He was “determined to create a more confident system and profession, that’s not worrying about who might knock on the door the next time”.

But Mr Swinney also said: “There are certain elements of fear within the [education] system, which we need to remove.”

The Glasgow headteacher who raised the issue noted that Wales had been looking at ending its ratings in the belief that school inspection should not contribute to a “culture of fear” in education.

On the picture in Scotland, she said: “Often we get involved in a debate about ‘What did you get? What did you get?’ Instead, it should be a debate about ‘What did you learn? What are the things that you feel you could do to move forward as a school to improve?’”

Chief inspector Gayle Gorman, who also spoke at today’s conference, said the idea was being explored by Education Scotland, but was at an early stage.

Ms Gorman clarified that no formal consultation had yet been conducted, but confirmed that the idea had been discussed.

“It’s certainly something we’ve been talking about and looking at,” she told Tes Scotland.

Concerns had been raised, she said, that “people cut to that [report rating] and don’t necessarily see the rest of the detail”. But Ms Gorman added that the ratings did not always prove a distraction and could be useful in helping a school to see areas in which it had to improve.

Any alternative system of inspection reporting would have to be equally clear about a school’s strengths and weaknesses, she stressed.

“How do you make sure a community knows about the quality of education in their local areas?” said Ms Gorman, adding that “the system and the school and the teachers and the learners have to know where they are on that journey”.