I'm with you about atmosphere: I think she creates it so well here, the nebulous sense of unease that they can't quite define (echoed perhaps the next day by the fog?).

I hadn't thought of Nicola's linking it to boys school stories and hence the sexual undertones. And that era boys school stories is not really within my repertoire (too many books, too little time). Would there have been a perceived difference between teachers being "beastly" and pupils? (The few examples I can think of only are about older boy/younger boy). Either way it points to a wide acknowledgement of sexual abuse / power abuse within hierarchical relationships being common knowledge, even if the mechanics of grooming not understood in the same language as we would now use.