Elementary schools were the first schools in England and Wales intended to give a basic education to the children of working class families. At the start of the 19th century, the only schooling available to these young people were run by private concerns or by charities and were often of a very poor standard. In the first decades of that century, a network of elementary schools were established by societies backed by the Christian churches. In an effort to expand the extent of this "voluntary" system, the government made grants available to these societies, initially for new school buildings but later towards their running costs. It became apparent that although this system worked reasonably well in rural communities, it was far less successful in the rapidly expanding industrial cities an