A teacher’s job can sometimes feel like a thankless role, a representative of the teachers’ union said yesterday.

Shannon James, president of the Bermuda Union of Teachers, said that “sometimes it just doesn’t feel like the community is on your side. I’m just being honest”.

Mr James was one of several union representatives who spoke at an annual Labour Day event held yesterday outside the Bermuda Industrial Union headquarters.

He highlighted media coverage of problems in schools as only part of the story.

Mr James said: “When I turn on the TV and I see Cambridge results are in again — but I don’t hear that I didn’t get chemistry supplies.”

He added: “We need a push.”

Mr James told the crowd he had visited a playground with his son a few weeks ago.

Mr James said: “There was a little girl on the swing a couple of swings down from us.”

He added the girl’s mother told her daughter that she knew how to use a swing when she was asked for a push.

He added: “She said ‘I know what I’m doing — I just need a push’.”

Mr James said that Bermuda’s teachers needed a similar push.

He asked people to encourage pupils as they returned to the classroom next week.

Mr James said: “Give them a push. It’s only through pushing each other that we can make it.”

The BUT, the island’s first trade union, will mark its 100th anniversary in February.