In year 12 my school tried to blackmail them into paying school fees by not allowing me to have a school diary but then they told me that i could not use a non-school one - - also told me I was not allowed to buy tickets to my own valedictory dinner unless my school fees were paid. I ended up having to do voluntaryh work in the library to get my tix. Bt ridiculous if my parents could legitimately not afford it.
When I was in year 12 we had to pay a higher fee rate. This was meant to cover staff to sit in exams (although over $200 extra per year 12 student would surely be a lot more than paying an extra staff member for a few exams as our school only offered about 10 VCE subjects...). Then our school decided that rather than spend extra money on staff we would have to travel to a different local school and sit our exams with them. Of course the two schools were sort of rival schools, so the atmosphere was less than inviting. Nice way to make your year 12 students feel relaxed and secure during their super important exams! I ended up demanding back the extra that I paid and they agreed to do it. It probably helped that earlier in the year a window had broken on my head and it was not the legally required safety glass. I ended up having to have a resultant cyst removed by a plastic surgeon. They were pretty happy that we didn't sue them so were probably more willing to give me the fee back, lol.