Reception teachers can you tell me something?

[MrsFogi]

Is it normal (or wise) to teach the phonics and the "names" of letters simultaneously. DD2's teacher seems to be doing this (only moving dd on to the next letter when she knows both the phonic sound and the name of the letter). Dd1 didn't do this - she learnt the phonics and at a later stage when already reading learnt the alphabet so letter names. I'd be grateful for your views as I don't wish to be the complaining parent two weeks in but it seems like a recipe for confusion to me.

I taught my DC both the letter name and sound at the same time. My reasoning being that they understand the concept of "this is a cow and it says Moo" etc. so why not "this is an A and it says ah". I did take time to make sure I was using the correct phonic sound.
When they got to Reception the school did introduce the sound in the first term and the letter names in the second.

We just did the phonic sounds and we whizzed through but i'm not a reception teacher.

Yes knowing letter names is helpful when explaining some of the more complex phonics in later phases. For example words with a 'magic e' on the end change the vowel from its letter sound (i) to letter name (eye) as in 'time'. Very confusing trying to explain via key-pad but I hope you get what I mean?

Most children would have sung the alphabet song with Mum / Uncle / Nanny anyway.