Chocolate, dogs and Craig David - my school day with the governor

For most governors of a central bank nothing could be further from their comfort zone than appearing in front of a hall full of 12-18 year olds being asked everything from what's the point of money to name your favourite chocolate.

Mark Carney had that experience today and the pupils from Whitley Academy in Coventry expressed surprise that he was "cool" and "informal" and "answered everything".

I was sitting near the back, and noticed the only nerves came when the governor could see a possible bear trap opening in front of him.

Such as when he was asked what he would do with all the bank notes if "the monarch changes".

"Well." Long pause. The old notes would slowly be taken out of circulation if the monarch changed "for whatever reason", he eventually replied.

So what did we find out about the governor of the Bank of England?

Quite a lot actually. From the small scale (he likes Dairy Milk, dogs - though he has a cat at home, "I was out voted - and the Great British Bake Off) to the rather more grand (we are living in an age of globalised "mass creativity" and the referendum result proved the toughest night of his career, ensuring the plan the Bank had put together in the case of a Brexit vote was executed).

Mr Carney started with a short speech in which he revealed that he had gone to a state school "just like this one" and that it was "a total accident of history that I became governor of the Bank of England" - adding as an aside that many may wonder what Britain had done to deserve such a fate.

It was also not absolutely clear that he knew who either Skepta or Craig David were - answering "The Specials" rather hopefully when asked to choose between the two.

Mr Carney urged the pupils to follow their passions and to take advantage of the newly interconnected world where the whole globe was open to them.

It is always revealing seeing those in positions of power questioned by those not much impressed by status.

He said the day facing the BBC's School Reporters gave him pause for thought, and took him out of the "bubble" he often inhabited at international meetings around the world.

"I will certainly be thinking about what I have been asked on the way home on the train," he said, and looked engaged beyond the ordinary when one pupil whose father ran a pawn shop asked what he thought about the people who were so poor they had to sell off their treasured possessions.

Low and stagnant incomes, he answered, were "one of the challenges of our time".

His nickname at school? Carnival or carnage, he revealed when asked.

Mark Carnage - a moniker I am sure we will hear a little more of. Whether he is praised for avoiding it. Or criticised for causing it.