Valerie the daughter of a Streatham Doctor lived at 61 Mount Ephraim Road and attended Streatham Hill High School for Girls and the Robinson School of Dancing before moving to Aida Foster's North London school of acting singing and dancing.
Her class mates at Foster's included 2 Streatham girls, Patricia Webb of 22 Abbotswood Road, one of the Streatham Queen of Trade's court ladies and also Miss England 1952, and Jean Galton (Williams) of Ockley Road who ran a dance school in Streatham. Valerie was also in the same class as famous actress Jean Simmons.