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The Author of this Site

The History on the Net Group is owned, produced and maintained by Heather Wheeler an historian and former history teacher.

A Brief Biography

I left school in 1974 with few qualifications and no idea of what I wanted to do with my life. Twenty years later with a variety of jobs behind me, I decided that I wanted to teach. However, for a single parent without a degree this seemed an impossibility.

I was not put off and worked as a childminder in my own home studying with the Open University for a degree in European Humanities in my spare time.

When my youngest son started school I began working as a Learning Support Assistant in a Primary School. I soon found that I had a particular aptitude for working with pupils with special needs, especially those with challenging behaviour. In 1999, to further my development of techniques for dealing with challenging behaviour, I left the Primary School to work in a Pupil Referral Unit.

In December 1999 I finally graduated and began my PGCE in History in September 2000. The History on the Net website was established in November 2000 to provide easily accessible resources for my teaching practice. I took up my first teaching post in September 2001 as Learning Support Unit Manager at Filsham Valley Secondary School spending much of my time with pupils with behavioural problems and established a second website Additional Needs Net (www.additionalneeds.net) In June 2003 I decided to take a side-step and from September 2003 taught Humanities and History full time at Filsham Valley School and was appointed Head of History iIn March 2004.

The growth and demands of the site together with the demands of my teaching post became impossible to manage during the Autumn term of 2004. Not wanting to give up the site, I decided to take some time out from teaching to further develop the site. Four years on and the site has become a thriving business managed by myself with help from family members.

History on the Net

History on the Net began life in November 2000 as a means of providing easily accessible resources for my teaching practice and furthering my historical knowledge.

From small beginnings, the site has grown considerably over the last four years and moved from being a compulsive hobby to a full-time occupation. Despite the growth of the History on the Net our aims remain the same: to provide historical information, linked to the English Secondary School National Curriculum, that is easy for both children and adults to navigate, is written in accessible language, is illustrated wherever possible and makes learning fun.

The site design has changed over the years in order to incorporate more information and to improve navigation.

November 2000	January 2001	June 2001	October 2003
	October 2004	November 2007

History on the Net had, in the past, used advertising to pay for the costs of running the site. In October 2004 I decided to open a History on the Net Shop selling products relevant to History and History teaching. The success of the shop meant that in December 2004 the site was able to lose all third-party advertising. In July 2006 the shop was given a new design to allow for the growing range of products available.

Early 2008 the History on the Net shop design was changed to incorporate products from all our sites. The shop is sub-divided into History, Natural History, Literacy/Numeracy and Special Needs sections and offers 2000+ products (Worksheet booklets, Posters, DVDs, Children's Books, Audio Books and Music CDs)

history on the net shop image