Small group SEAL / social skills groups

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Hello, I'm just curious as to what this actually entails. I asked at school, having received a letter about it but came away just as clueless. Something about role models, making friends, talking. It was mentioned some of them have speech / language problems. All a bit vague really.
I guess I want to know why my son is on it,or why pupils might be on it generally, and what they are expected to gain from it.
I feel a bit helpless because I don't understand. My son wasn't aware he was in this group (though he later told me he'd left class to do fun things with other kids a couple of times). How is he supposed to improve some random social skill without even knowing?
If your child has been to similar did it help them?

Your child may be in the group as a role model rather than a learner. Does he need to improve in his speech/ social skills? General these groups are a good thing!

I did ask if he was a role model but the answer was avoided somewhat! I expect they are trying to improve a perceived fault in him as social skills flagged up along his education. He's generally happy / friendly though. Sometimes overreacts to things at home but tells us he doesn't at school.

My dd was put in one of these groups without my knowledge or consent because she was being bullied and the school thought that putting her in said activity with the girls who were bullying her would be a good idea. When I found out I asked her not to be included as it was making matters worse. The school actually ignored my request so I had to write to the ht making it very clear that she was not to attend.

My advice is to make sure you understand the reason for your ds to be put in this type of group and if you are unhappy with any aspect of it you have the right to withdraw him

My DS was put in one of these groups last year when he was in Y2. I was told it was to help a boy who had just started at the school who had been bullied at his previous school. They had picked him and 2 of his friends to join the new boy as they were (according to the Learning Mentor) the "gentler" boys in the class. They used to play games and did activities to build self esteem. He enjoyed it and the class TA told me about it - they didn't ask permission but I'm sure if I had been unhappy about it they would have removed him from the sessions (he did half an hour for 6 weeks).

All the kids in my dc's school do a turn in Seal (small groups) for a few weeks. They seem to cover stuff like self esteem, bullying, feelings etc. They seem to like it.

So you have all the information:
Quick Overview
<a class="break-all" href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110809101133/nsonline.org.uk/primary/behaviourattendanceandseal/primaryseal" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Links to full programme
Review

Thanks all for sharing your knowledge / experience. That's pretty awful about your daughter Muskey, hope she's ok now. I did ask him about the other kids, none of themhe knows, and they all seem pretty normal to him.
Those links look really useful Jewel I will check them out in detail later.
Seems like groups could be advantageous to certain people sometimes.
It's a shame that schools can't be more transparent on the whole thing though, because the misty approach just leads to confusion / suspicion.

She's fine now as in the end we had to move schools. Tbh the school didn't deal with the whole bullying thing and I think they wanted her to learn to deal with the bully's rather than allowing them to walk over her. The trouble was that the woman running the sessions had very odd ideas as to what she was doing and why. She seemed to think that my dd needed to change rather than dealing with the bullies.

But as I said you do have the right to withdraw you dc if you think it is not beneficial. Goodluck