<Ul> <Li> The previous Labour focus on the comprehensive system was shifted to a focus on tailoring education to each child's ability . Critics see this as reminiscent of the original intentions of the Tripartite system . </Li> <Li> Grant - maintained status was abolished, with GM schools being given the choice of rejoining the local authority as a maintained community school, or becoming a foundation school . </Li> </Ul> <Li> The previous Labour focus on the comprehensive system was shifted to a focus on tailoring education to each child's ability . Critics see this as reminiscent of the original intentions of the Tripartite system . </Li> <Li> Grant - maintained status was abolished, with GM schools being given the choice of rejoining the local authority as a maintained community school, or becoming a foundation school . </Li> <P> The Government - run Eleven - Plus exam selection exam has now been abolished in the UK, and no longer do all children sit for it as used to be the case . However, voluntary selection tests are still conducted in certain areas of the UK, where some of the original grammar schools have been retained . These areas include: Northern Ireland and some English counties and districts including Devon, Dorset, Kent, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Birmingham, Trafford, Wiltshire, North Yorkshire, Calderdale, Kirklees, Wirral, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and some London boroughs such as Bexley, Kingston - upon - Thames and Redbridge . There have been various so far unsuccessful attempts by campaigners to abolish all remaining grammar schools . The remaining grammar schools are now thus still selective, typically taking the top 10 - 25% of those from the local catchment area . Some of the still - existing grammar schools in the United Kingdom can trace their history back to earlier than the sixteenth century . </P>

When did school become mandatory in the uk