School apologises for Hitler dress-up

These New Zealand children have chosen more appropriate costumes for their dress-up day. Photo / Dean Purcell

A Catholic primary school principal in Perth has apologised to parents after a student dressed as Adolf Hitler won first place in class on a school dress-up day.

A letter went out to parents on Wednesday after some complained the costume should not have been allowed at the inner-city school.

Children had been asked to dress up as famous people and a Year 4 student had turned up as the Nazi leader, complete with swastika.

The school principal said he did not see anything sinister in the student's choice of costume.

"To me it's a mountain out of a mole hill," The West Australian newspaper reported him saying.

"I just think it's a one-off thing that in retrospect we'd do differently," the principal said.

Some parents had also complained about children being allowed to dress up as vampires or the grim reaper, he said.

The letter sent to parents said that for all future dress-ups, teachers would "restrict the choice of characters to those appropriate for primary school-aged students".

- AAP