Helsinki School
of Natural Sciences

Helsinki School of Natural Sciences is a public (municipal), non-graded upper secondary school providing general upper secondary education with a focus on science. 

The studies lead to the national school-leaving examination (the matriculation examination), and give eligibility for further studies at institutions of higher education provided by vocational colleges and institutions intended for matriculated students, polytechnics, and universities.

Helsingin luonnontiedelukio, nicknamed Hellu, has a staff of about 60 teachers and more than 900 students, one third of whom are in the science programme and two thirds in the general programme.

The school was established in August 1999, in a merger of Käpylä Upper Secondary (founded in 1874 as a public school in the former Finnish town Vyborg, Russia) and Meilahti Upper Secondary School (founded in 1944 as a private school).

The first school building in Käpylä was constructed in 1973 and designed by Aarno Ruusuvuori as an office building, but rebuilt for school purpose in 1998-99. In autumn 2023, the school will have a brand-new, wooden building on the Kumpula campus of Helsinki University, a campus dedicated to research and teaching in the exact natural sciences.