Smeltings' sticks

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 168870

Dudley and his fellow Smeltings students wear uniforms that seem to be
a parody of British public school uniforms (maroon tailcoats, orange
knickerbockers, and boaters), but they also carry "knobbly sticks used
for hitting each other when the teachers weren't looking" (SS Am. ed.
32). Clearly, it's a boys' school and Uncle Vernon hopes that it will
make a "man" (i.e., an even bigger bully) out of Dudley.

Does anyone (preferably British list members) think that JKR is poking
fun at British public schools, especially boys' schools, here? What do
the Smeltings' sticks suggest or correspond to?

Thanks in advance for your input on this question.

Carol, who, being female and American, never attended any remotely
similar institution