Our School motto, ‘Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum’ meaning, ‘nothing is great unless it is good’ is upheld by many of our exceptional Old Girls.

The Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum (NMNB) project embraces the motto and recognises some of the amazing achievements of past students of the School.

The list includes women from Academia, the Arts, Philanthropy, Medicine, Law, Business, Entrepreneurship and Sport.

Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum Project

In 2006, the 110th Anniversary of the School, St Catherine’s Old Girls’ Association (SCOGA) highlighted the achievements of some of our alumnae. SCOGA formed a sub-committee and began searching into the history of many past students and selected 25 to be honoured in the first phase. Together with the School, the first 25 profiles were produced and the Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum Project was launched in November 2010. In 2013, a further 10 women were profiled, another 15 in 2015, and a further 10 in 2021. A total of 60 women have been profiled to date.

Over the course of the coming weeks we will share and celebrate the 10 new Old Girls profiled in 2021. To read all our NMNB Project profiles click here.

Amanda Drennan (’06)

Amanda Drennan (’06) is a dual Paralympian, long distance open water swimmer and passionate contributor to the Phillip Island health services community. Amanda, born without her right leg, swam her first swimming race at the school swimming sports in Year 4 on Phillip Island. In Year 5, she competed at her first school state championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre where she qualified to swim both able and disabled races. Forced to choose between the two – her parents chose the disabled races.

In 2002, Amanda was chosen to represent Australia at the 2002 world championships in Argentina. She was 14 at the time. Swimming backstroke in the medley relay team, she had the honour of leading off the Australian team. This was her first international gold medal and cemented her love of swimming in a team. After accepting a boarding scholarship at St Catherine’s School, Amanda started training eight to nine times a week in the pool and three days in the gym.

In the Sydney trials for the 2004 Paralympic Games, personal bests were accomplished in all her races. Due to all the different classifications it is not always the person who touches the wall first that wins the race. The classifications range from S1 to S14. People are ranked by how close they swam to the current world record in their classification. When “Amanda Drennan, Melbourne Vic Centre” was announced, she walked out of the hallway to past and present Olympic swimmers such as Shane Gould and Dawn Fraser cheering and hugging her. In Athens, her 100m freestyle personal best unexpectedly gained her a spot in the 4 x 100m Freestyle relay team as the fastest Australian and they managed to place in third in the relay final.

On completion of VCE, and spending seven months in Germany at age 18, she came back to Australia in time for the 2008 Paralympic trials and was selected again for the Australian team.

Amanda’s next swimming challenge was her idea – Swim for Life in 2011, a 66km swim around Phillip Island with the idea to raise funds to re-open the hospital. Taking five days due to the rough weather, funds went to the 24-hour medical hub which was opened in Cowes in 2019 and continues to save lives.

After the Paralympics, Amanda finished her diploma in Chinese massage and started her own business on Phillip Island. She still does long distance open water swims and travelling when possible. Passionate about great health services and facilities on Phillip Island, the Paralympian continues to advocate for the community through committee and voluntary work. Sidney, her first child to partner Ben, was born in 2020.