Convicted sex offender Rolf Harris is being investigated after reportedly entering the grounds of a primary school near his home in the UK and waving at students.

The disgraced Australian entertainer walked onto the premises of Oldfield Primary School near his home in Bray, Maidenhead to talk to a sculptor working on the grounds, the Daily Mirror reported.

He was asked to leave by head teacher Richard Jarrett who later told police that Harris had no immediate access to pupils “whatsoever” but could not be stopped from waving at them, according to the paper.

Harris, 88, who served three years in prison for a string of historical sex offences, shook hands with Mr Jarrett before being ordered off the site. 

“We’ve got a wood sculptor working close to the road at the moment and Rolf Harris lives about three doors down from the school,” he said.

“He must have seen him [the sculptor] and come into the school area. He had no access to the children whatsoever.

“I went over and shook his hand and introduced myself. He explained what he was doing – that he was getting some wood from the sculptor. I said, ‘You need to go’.”

A witness, who took pictures of Harris stalking the grounds, told the UK’s Mirror newspaper: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “When sex offenders are released they are subject to strict licence conditions and are liable to be returned to custody for breaching them.

“We are looking into these reports and will take appropriate action.”

Thames Valley Police said an officer attended the scene and established that no offence had been committed.

Police said it was called to Oldfield Primary School at around 3.15pm on Tuesday.

It added: “A report was made that a man was on the site of the school. An officer attended the scene but no offence was committed. No arrests were made.”

Harris declined to answer journalists’ questions about what he was doing at the school when he left his gated home near the Thames on Wednesday.

A family favourite for decades, Harris was convicted of 12 indecent assaults at London’s Southwark Crown Court in June 2014, including one on an eight-year-old autograph hunter, two on girls in their early teens, and a catalogue of abuse against his daughter’s friend over 16 years.

The abuse took place between 1968 and 1986.

In May 2017 he was formally cleared of four unconnected historical sex offences, which he had denied. Later the same year, one of the 12 indecent assault convictions was overturned by the Court of Appeal.

-with AAP