Our School

Tallwood High School strives to maximize excellence in education through diversity, spirit, sportsmanship, and creativity while transforming 21st century learners into proud individuals who are responsible and contribute to the local and global communities.

We stand alone in our individuality, yet we join together in our strength to build positive, productive futures through our most valuable resource---people. Therefore, our vision is to create an atmosphere fostering growth through pride, excellence and maximum learning.

The History of the "Tallwood" Plantation

The Nathaniel Nicholas House (Tallwood)stood at 1676 Kempsville Road in Virginia Beach. William Nicholas came to Kempsville in 1642. His grandson, Nathaniel Nicholas, inherited the family plantation south of Kempsville in 1746, on which he had already built the "Tallwood" house in 1740. He added 530 acres to those he had inherited, and it is said he planted one of every tree native to Virginia on his property. The house is clapboard with both ends of brick 14 inches thick. A center hall divides two large rooms downstairs. The flooring and stairway are all original pine.

Tallwood High School History

Tallwood opened its doors in 1992 with a population of 1,748 students. Mr. Bernard Morgan, III, was the school's first principal. Tallwood opened as the pride of Virginia Beach, with state of the art equipment and the best of modern conveniences for students and teachers to enjoy. The attractive building provides students with lots of large windows, columns, a courtyard area, arched walkways, and a general atmosphere of openness. Faculty and students all demonstrated their concern for each other as the "family" began to grow into their individual and collective plans and purposes.

Our desire for everyone that steps into this building is to expect great things to happen; create lasting traditions and build a lasting legacy for years to come - a legacy of pride in academic and athletic accomplishments, compassion for others, expectations of excellence, and quality leadership teams. The Tallwood colors, Purple, Gold, and White, and the Tallwood Alma Mater reflect school pride, strength, unity, and loyalty. In honor of our silver anniversary in 2017, Tallwood adopted a new school color, silver. Tallwood faculty and students our unity by wearing the Tallwood colors in support of our many excellent academic and sports events.

Tallwood High School Today!

In 2014, Tallwood welcomed our current principal, Dr. James Avila. Our student body is comprised of approximately 2,000 students and 213 faculty and staff members. In 2005, Tallwood became the home of the Global Studies and World Languages Academy which prepares students to contribute to the world community through multicultural and international perspectives in languages, geography, history, politics, and economics. Tallwood students are very active and involved in extracurricular activities.

Tallwood is a wonderful place of learning and growing with a "family" attitude. For together we stand to achieve all that we can.