Kathryn Whittall, Co-founder and CEO of Get Set 4 Education, has built her career around a simple but powerful belief: technology should make education better, easier, and more engaging. Her journey into EdTech began in the classroom, where she worked as a secondary school teacher and experienced first-hand the demands placed on educators.
Kathryn Whittall | Co-founder and CEO | Get Set 4 Education
In 2017, she joined forces with Natalie Richardson to create Get Set 4 Education. What started as an idea between two teachers has since grown into a platform supporting PE and Music in around 5,000 schools.
Whittall’s experience as a teacher played an important role in shaping her approach to EdTech. She understood that teachers often work under significant time pressure while being expected to deliver high-quality learning across a wide range of subjects. This became one of the key reasons behind the creation of Get Set 4 Education. She saw an opportunity to bring high-quality curriculum resources together with practical digital tools that could save teachers time and give them greater confidence.
Stay close to the people who use what you create.
Today, Get Set 4 Education provides planning, resources, subject knowledge, and assessment tools in one place. Its goal is to help teachers deliver engaging lessons while making strong subject leadership achievable, even when a teacher is not a specialist in PE or Music. For Whittall, the focus has always remained on the needs of teachers and pupils. The technology is designed to support education rather than replace the human qualities that make learning meaningful.
Her leadership style can be described as collaborative, ambitious, and hands-on. She believes people should have ownership of their areas of responsibility and feel confident enough to bring forward new ideas. At the centre of this approach is the principle of pursuing quality relentlessly. For Whittall, high standards are not simply about building a successful product. They are about continually looking for ways to improve the experience for schools, teachers, and pupils.
A major challenge in education is the limited time available to teachers. Primary educators, in particular, are expected to teach a broad range of subjects, and they cannot always be specialists in every area. Whittall believes technology can help close this gap by giving teachers practical resources and subject support without creating additional complexity. By bringing essential tools together, Get Set 4 Education aims to build teacher confidence and create greater consistency in the classroom.
Accessibility and ease of use are also important parts of Whittall’s approach. The organisation begins with the experience of teachers and pupils when developing its resources. Content needs to be clear, practical, and adaptable to different school environments. Listening to schools is therefore an important part of the development process. Feedback from educators helps the team understand how the platform is being used and where improvements can make the greatest difference.
Pursue quality relentlessly
While Whittall recognises the opportunities technology creates, she also believes that it should have a clear purpose. Technology should not be introduced simply because it is available. Instead, it should enhance the learning experience. This is particularly important in subjects such as PE and Music, where pupils need opportunities to move, play, create, collaborate, and perform. Digital tools can support these experiences, but they should not replace them.
Artificial intelligence and data are becoming increasingly important in Whittall’s work. Digital tools can reduce administration, support assessment, and help schools make better use of information. She also sees AI as an opportunity to make the interaction between teachers and educational platforms easier. However, her approach remains practical. Innovation should solve genuine problems rather than become an additional feature with little value for educators.
This balance between innovation and the human side of education is central to Whittall’s leadership philosophy. She sees technology as a tool, not a teacher. Relationships, creativity, collaboration, and effective teaching remain at the heart of education. If a technology does not make something easier or better for a teacher or pupil, she believes it is important to question its purpose.
Building an EdTech company has also brought challenges. One of the most important has been finding the right balance between innovation and simplicity. As a product grows, there can be a temptation to add more features, but Whittall understands that simplicity is part of what makes technology useful. At the same time, budget pressures across schools have made it increasingly important for EdTech providers to demonstrate genuine and measurable value.
One of the milestones that makes Whittall particularly proud is the growth of Get Set 4 Education from an idea created by two teachers into a platform supporting around 5,000 schools. However, she views the organisation’s success as more than a measure of numbers. Get Set 4 More, the company’s community support initiative, is another achievement close to her values. Through the initiative, schools within the Get Set community can nominate causes that matter to their pupils, families, and wider communities. It allows the business to use part of its success to create a positive impact beyond its platform.
For Whittall, measuring educational impact requires both data and human feedback. Retention, engagement, and platform usage can provide valuable information about how a product is performing. Yet some of the most meaningful signs of impact come directly from schools. Knowing that a teacher feels more confident teaching a subject or that pupils are looking forward to their next lesson gives a deeper understanding of the difference the platform can make.
Looking towards 2026 and beyond, Whittall expects AI to play a major role in EdTech, particularly in reducing workload and making educational data more useful. However, she believes successful EdTech development will depend on thoughtful implementation rather than simply adding AI for the sake of innovation.
Her advice to future education leaders is grounded in listening and continuous improvement. Staying close to the people who use a product, understanding the problem being solved, and remaining open to change are essential. For Whittall, no educational product should ever be considered finished. There should always be an opportunity to improve, learn, and create greater value. Her journey demonstrates how experience from the classroom, combined with purposeful technology and strong leadership, can help create meaningful change across education.
Technology should enhance learning, not become the learning.