To write a query to return the top 10 students who spent the most money last year, you would need to have a database schema that includes tables for students and transactions, where transaction data includes the student ID and the amount spent. Here's an example query using SQL syntax:
SELECT s.student_name, SUM(t.amount) AS total_spent
FROM students s
JOIN transactions t ON s.student_id = t.student_id
WHERE t.transaction_date >= DATE_SUB(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 1 YEAR)
GROUP BY s.student_name
ORDER BY total_spent DESC
LIMIT 10;