Currently over a third of schools in Britain are faith schools, yet their place within the British education system remains a hotly contested issue, with advocates and opponents exchanging charge and counter-charge. With the current debate sparked by the Government's wish to establish more faith schools it is timely to explore some of the controversial issues involved. This article explores social division, intolerance and indoctrination as objections to faith schools and evaluates whether faith schools are educationally defensible.