STUDENTS at Lancashire's top secondary school were told by their head to "not live in a world of virtual reality and get real!"

Headteacher of Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School, in Waterfoot, Martyn Morris praised his former pupils for their success in the previous year which has seen the school ranked as 97th in the country in the Daily Telegraph's league table.

Students achieved a record 55 per cent of GCSE passes at A* and A grades and all students gained at least five GCSE grades A* to C.

Three of the candidates were awarded the top five marks in the country -- one in science, one in history and one in PE.

In A-levels 94 per cent of students gained A to E passes and 48 per cent of grades were A and B.

But at the presentation night, Mr Morris also chose to talk about the drug of choice -- fiction, be it through TV, books or electronic through computers and the Internet.

He said: "I think we have to get real. We say we value out friends and family but when it comes to choice of work or family which wins?

"We have to recognise where reality ends and fiction begins. Eating a meal in front of the television is not relationship, it's communal fiction.

"Building relationships at work when we have no responsibility or commitment to each other is a fictional form of relationship. So firstly I think we need to get real."

"Secondly we need to know where reality ends and fiction begins and lastly, we have to stop doing."

He added: "We have to turn down the fiction and the non-stop 'doingness' of our lives, and let a little boredom creep in,

"Perhaps we need to revisit the idea of a day of Sabbath, a day when we do nothing, except focus on what we value most, a time when we hang out with those we love, reflect on the deeper meanings of life, explore our creative gifts or offer our services to those less fortunate."

"One think that won't work is just saying 'no' to fiction, Addictions don't respond to deprivation -- they only give up their hold when something better comes along."