Primary school newsletter accidentally features reindeer sex image

Parents were shocked to find the image of two reindeer having sex on the Christmas jumper. Photos / Getty and Ebay

A primary school has apologised after accidentally publishing an image of reindeer having sex in newsletter.

According to the Daily Mail, Hyde Park Junior School in Plymouth, Devon, sent the letter to pupils and parents urging them to take part in a Christmas jumper day for charity.

But staff at the 360-pupil school illustrated the letter with a jumper featuring a naughty festive pattern of four reindeer mating.

They have now removed the newsletter from their website after it went up on Monday, and headmistress Tina Jackson has apologised for the blunder.

She said: "Unfortunately we didn't look closely enough at the picture we used to show our support for Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Friday.

The jumper that featured in the Hyde Park Junior School newsletter. Photo / Ebay

"We're sorry if it has offended anyone and hope it doesn't spoil our good intention of encouraging pupils to support a very worthy cause."

One parent said: "I'm a bit shocked that a primary school have sent out a newsletter with an inappropriate picture. Something to make you laugh?"

The school has an interesting history, having been opened in 1904 on the site of Thornhill House - once occupied in the 16th century by explorer Sir Francis Drake.

The building was used as a hospital and convalescent home during the First World War, and was hit by an incendiary bomb in 1941 during the Second World War.

Hyde Park Junior's latest Ofsted report in 2014 gave it a "good" rating, saying: "Most groups of pupils achieve well over time as a result of consistently strong teaching".