About Kita
Students still need to learn how to think computationally, solve problems, understand the systems around them and develop the confidence to create with technology. Teachers need tools that help them do that without adding more complexity or taking away the thinking that makes learning valuable.
Kita grew out of more than a decade of teaching computing. When Replit for Education was discontinued, we experienced the same problem as computing teachers everywhere who had come to rely on it: a tool that had become part of the classroom suddenly disappeared. Our approach is grounded in 12 years in the classroom and more than 21,000 students taught. Since starting Kita, we've spoken with more than 50 secondary computing teachers across the UK to understand what they need from the next generation of computing tools.
We wanted something we could rely on for the long term. But we didn't want to simply recreate Replit for Education. We wanted to build something better for teaching and learning: a platform designed specifically for education, shaped around the way teachers actually teach, and built for a world in which AI is becoming part of the classroom. Our work has also been supported by the Department for Education through two competitive grant-funded projects looking at safe, ethical AI in the classroom. What began with a problem in our own classrooms has become a bigger ambition: to build the computing platform teachers and students need for the next decade of computing education.
The people building Kita
We're educators, designers, researchers and engineers brought together by a shared belief that computing education matters and that the tools teachers and students use should be worthy of the work they're doing.
Heather Lyons
Co-founder
Heather has spent more than a decade teaching computing and building products and programmes for young people. Before Kita, she founded BlueShift Education, where her team taught more than 21,000 students. She previously worked in product and UX.
Nathan Varughese
Co-founder
Nathan has more than a decade of experience in machine learning and software engineering and leads the technology behind Kita. He was previously CTO of an algorithmic trading company, worked at JP Morgan and DRW, and holds an MSc in Mathematics from Imperial College London.
Sebastian Vasquez-Lopez
Head of AI Engineering
Sebastian leads Kita's work on AI, focused on using it to support learning without doing the thinking for students. He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Oxford, where he was also a Research Fellow, and a PGCert in Educational Technology from UCL.
Fiona MacNeill
Head of Product
Fiona has more than 15 years of experience in learning design, UX and learning technologies, and leads Kita's product development with teachers and learners at its centre. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has worked across education, technology and learning design in the UK and US.
Built on four principles
1
Learning over cognitive offloading
Kita is designed to develop understanding, not to replace it. Learning computer science matters more in the age of AI, not less.
2
Feedback that works
Kita replaces fragmented workflows with a single, real-time workspace. Teachers can see student progress, intervene earlier, and deliver high-quality feedback without moving between multiple tools. The result is less time spent managing tools and more time spent teaching.
3
Built for the long term
Kita is designed as durable educational infrastructure, co-designed with teachers rather than retrofitted to the classroom. Its roadmap is transparent and grounded in real classroom needs, so that schools can adopt it with confidence rather than risk another tool that pivots or disappears.
4
Modern, inclusive design
Kita treats interface quality as a pedagogical requirement, not a cosmetic one. Considered UI/UX reduces cognitive load, builds confidence, and creates a sense of belonging from the first interaction. This matters most for students underrepresented in computing, for whom dated and difficult tools can reinforce the sense that the subject is not for them.