It's a family AQA 63336 affair in Birmingham

19 March 2007 – "While many 20-somethings are heading out for a Saturday night on the town, Katie McIlroy, aged 23, of Walmley and her family slip into their PJs, order in a take-away and settle down to a night in front of the computer." writes the Sutton Coldfield Observer.

Katie McIlroy and her mother, sister, and brother's girlfriend are all experienced AQA researchers. In the article just published, Katie and her family talk about their AQA work answering the public's questions. "I really enjoy it and can't imagine doing anything else now."

For the full article please see the Sutton Coldfield Observer article here. For information about working for AQA, please see our vacancies page here.

Ten questions on Birmingham…

Q. Why is birmingham called birmingham?
A. The name Birmingham is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'Beormund ingas ham'. 'Beormund' is a proper name, 'ingas' means people and 'ham' means farm.

Q. Birmingham slang, half soaked?
A. Half-soaked in Birmingham slang is more correctly pronounced as 'arf soaked' and means stupid, as does 'lard 'ed'. A person who is stupid is a 'morkins'.

Q. Who are the people on the statues on broad street, birmingham?
A. The recently re-gilded statue in Broad Street, Birmingham shows Matthew Boulton, James Watt & William Murdoch, pioneers of the industrial revolution.

Q. How many birmingham players have been capped by england?
A. There have been 16 Birmingham City players capped for England. The first was Charles Charsley in 1893. He won just one cap and played in goal.

Q. Can you tell me what year radio 1 played sutton park in birmingham?
A. Radio 1 played at Sutton Park in Birmingham on Sunday 30 Aug 1992. 100,000 fans turned up to watch Del Amitri, Aswad, The Farm and Status Quo.

Q. How long would it take to run from doncaster to birmingham?
A. It is 94 miles from Doncaster to Birmingham. Running this at a good pace of 8 minutes a mile, it would take around 12 and a half hours excluding breaks.

Q. Is there a california in birmingham, england?
A. Yes, there's an area of Birmingham known as California. It's located in the south west of the city, between Harborne and Woodgate Valley Park.

Q. What heavy weight boxer came from birmingham?
A. AQA thinks you mean Pele Reid. In 22 fights he won 16 (KOs 15), lost 4 and drew 2. He knocked out Vitali Klitshcko in a kick boxing bout in 1992.

Q. Population of cardiff, london, manchester, liverpool, birmingham, glasgow?
A. Population at the 2001 census: Cardiff 305,340; London 8,278,251; Manchester 394,269; Liverpool 469,017; Birmingham 970,892; Glasgow 629,501.

Q. How many silver spots are there on the out side of birmingham, selfridges?
A. 15,000 aluminium discs cover the outside of the Selfridges building in Birmingham. There are no windows; all light inside the building is artificial.

Notes to Editors:

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