The foundation of Finland’s first Finnish-language school for girls was laid in a small group advocating the Finnish language and national spirit in the late winter of 1869, with university lecturer B. F. Godenhjelm’s wife Ida Godenhjelm (née Lindroos) presiding over the birth of the school. In the spring of the same year, the group wrote a petition asking permission to found a private girl school in Helsinki. The school would closely resemble Helsinki’s state-owned girl school in subjects and courses, but have Finnish as its language of instruction. The Senate of Finland granted permission to establish the school on 1 April 1869, and the school commenced operation on 1 September 1869. By then, twelve pupils had signed up, five from Helsinki and seven from the countryside. Five more pupils enrolled later, raising the school’s total number of pupils to 17 in the first year.
The Finnish-language girl school operated in different parts of the Helsinki city centre during its first years, until it gained its first own school building on the corner of the streets Yrjönkatu and Bulevardi in 1884. In 1924, the school moved to Runeberginkatu street and changed its name to Tyttönormaalilyseo. In 1969, the school became co-educational, moved to Mäkipellontie street in the Etelä-Haaga district and changed its name to Helsingin yhteisnormaalilyseo.
In 1974, the school became part of the Department of Teacher Education of the Faculty of Education, University of Helsinki, and changed its name to Helsingin II normaalikoulu.
Comprehensive school grades 7–9 and the general upper secondary school operated in the Mäkipellontie school building for over thirty years. Comprehensive school grades 1–6 were housed on Isonnevantie street, also in the Haaga district from 1974 and on Bulevardi street in the city centre from 1981 to 1983 while the school building in Haaga was renovated and expanded. The comprehensive school started moving to Viikki in stages, starting with grades 1–6 in 1999.
In 2003, the rest of the school moved to the Viikki Campus, and the school changed its name to Helsingin yliopiston Viikin normaalikoulu, the Viikki Teacher Training School of the University of Helsinki.
The new school building at Kevätkatu 2 in Viikki houses some 940 pupils and students, almost 100 teachers and approximately 250 student teachers.