The school was founded as Christ Classical Christian School in 1994 by a group of homeschooling parents from Elkton, Maryland, taking inspiration from Douglas Wilson's book, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. In its first year, 23 students were enrolled. It relocated to Newark in 1995, to Hockessin in 1997, adopting the name Tall Oaks Classical School. In 2001, Donald Post became the school's second headmaster, and in 2006 moved to the Faith City Family Church building in Christiana. In 2010, the school moved to First Baptist Church in New Castle, Delaware, formerly occupied by New Castle Christian Academy. The school's third headmaster, Timothy Dernlan, took over in 2014, after serving one year as the upper school principal. In 2016, the school moved to the Red Lion campus, which they shared with Red Lion Christian Academy in a partnership with Reach Church's Reach Christian Schools. Under Reach's acquisition of Tall Oaks, athletics and other after-school activities were merged with Red Lion's programs. In 2019, the school reorganized under the new name Delaware Valley Classical School and announced they would be starting in September 2019 back at the New Castle campus under the leadership of Anthony Urti as headmaster.
Curriculum
In accordance with the classical tradition, the school divides education into three stages of learning: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. DVCS students also have the opportunity to earn several college credits before graduation through a dual enrollment program with Cairn University.
Extracurricular activities
DVCS athletics has varsity and middle school programs for cross country, soccer, and volleyball, along with middle school programs for basketball and baseball. They compete as the Titans in the DIAA and in the Mid-Atlantic Independent League. In 2015, the volleyball team and both cross-country teams earned 2nd place in the conference, with Titan runners sweeping all four champion spots. During their partnership on the Red Lion campus, Tall Oaks students earned lead roles in productions of the musicals The Wizard of Oz, The Pirates of Penzance, and Newsies. In January 2020, DVCS staged its first musical production, Willy Wonka. Students also have opportunities to compete in the Delaware Secondary School Mathematics League and Delaware Science Olympiad.
Awards and recognition
Tall Oaks was a charter member and accredited school of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools, one of the first 30 to earn that distinction. Delaware Valley Classical School was also granted full accreditation in its inaugural year. Students in grades three through eight participate in the National Mythology Exam sponsored by Excellence Through Classics, and in 2016, the sixth grade had 16 medalists, including seven gold, six silver, and three bronze. Students Kelly Weber, Phoebe Hu, and Sarah Chaffee represented Tall Oaks by earning first prize in the ACCS Chrysostom Oratory Competition in successive years from 2011–13, and in 2017, Kana Turley became the fourth Tall Oaks student to earn first prize in the competition. In 2017, Tall Oaks student Nick Yu earned a perfect score and a 3rd place finish in the Delaware Secondary School Mathematics League Invitational Meet. Also in 2017, Tall Oaks freshman Sam McGarvey was the second runner-up in the Poetry Out Loud State Competition, and went on to win the state title his sophomore year in 2018. He followed up in 2019 by taking the first runner-up spot his junior year, and then shared the stage his senior year with classmate Sarah Zhu, formerly of Tall Oaks, who took first runner-up in the 2020 state finals. The middle school Science Olympiad team took 2nd place overall for the 2018 state competition, with 1st place finishes in two events and 2nd place in another four. Both the middle school and high school teams earned 5th place overall in the 2019 competition.
