The Sutherland based Rice’s Swimming School is ending lessons after 64 years of teaching following the owners retirement.
The school – established in 1959 – has seen thousands of students from ages 3 and up learn to swim in the backyard pools of the Rice family
David Rice, owner of Rice’s swimming school believes the work of running the business as well as focusing on teaching has become increasingly demanding.
“Its gotten too difficult for a number of reasons,” Mr Rice said.
“Its physically quite demanding, but also the business side – the workload has become too much.”
Rice’s Swimming School had become well known throughout the Sutherland Shire during its tenure and had built a strong relationship with the community.
“It’s happened that three generations have learned to swim here, in fact quite a lot have,” Mr. Rice said.
“They tell you it’s a good school and that they like coming.”
Matthew Riedel, a former swim teacher, credits the school’s continued success to Mr. Rice’s dedication to the job.
“You could tell he was very passionate about teaching,”Mr Riedel said.
“He was always out the front making sure everything ran smoothly.”
Rice’s Swim school last ran lessons in February and has begun the process of officially shutting down the business with families of students who attended recieving farewell emails from Mr. Rice.