How to read a ParentGlow court pack

✦ The sample, page by page

One calm month, page by page.

The sample covers February 2026 for the Thompsons: Rachel and Mark share Sophie and Liam week about, with handovers at the school gate. Nothing dramatic happens. That's the point — this is what an ordinary record looks like.

1. 01

   Cover

   The dates the pack covers, when it was made, and how many records of each kind are inside. The line at the bottom, the document reference, is a value worked out from the records the pack contains. See page 1

2. 02

   Index

   Every section and the page it starts on. In the PDF each line links to its page, and every section is bookmarked, so a reader can jump straight to it. See page 2

3. 03

   Expense Register

   Every expense logged for those dates: what it was, who paid, how much, how it was split, and where it stands. In the sample: five agreed, one refused, one still being discussed and one waiting for a reply. See page 3

4. 04

   Refused and Disputed Expenses

   Anything refused or still being discussed, set out on its own with the reason given. In the sample, a winter coat was refused because the parents had agreed to use the school’s second-hand sale — and the cheaper coat from the sale is in the register a few days later, agreed. See page 4

5. 05

   Parenting-Time Summary

   How many nights the children spent with each parent over the period, counted from the family’s calendar. In the sample: fourteen each, a week-about pattern with one agreed swap. See page 5

6. 06

   Event Log

   Every calendar event in the period — school events, clubs, appointments, holidays — with the children involved and who was down for pick-up and drop-off. See page 6

7. 07

   Schedule-Change History

   Every request to change who has the children when: who asked, the reason, and the other parent’s answer with the date and time they gave it. In the sample, Rachel asks to swap one Friday for another, and Mark agrees. See page 7

8. 08

   Handover Notes

   The app’s Messages: every message sent between the parents in the period, with who wrote it, when, which child it was about if one was chosen, and when the other parent first saw it. The pack titles this section Handover Notes. See page 8

9. 09

   Handover messages & checklist

   For each handover: the date, the planned time and which way the children went; the messages about that handover, with who sent each and when; and the packing checklist, including a missing-PE-kit query and how it was settled. See page 8

10. 10

    Professional Access

    A log of every time a professional a parent had given access to — a solicitor or mediator, say — viewed or downloaded part of the family’s record. The sample family has given nobody access, and the page says so. See page 11

11. 11

    About These Records

    What the pack covers, whether anything in the period was left out, how the records were kept, and a note for anyone who attaches the pack to a witness statement. See page 11

12. 12

    Disclaimer

    The pack says in its own words that ParentGlow does not certify its contents, and that the weight given to it is a matter for the court. See page 12

✦ What it leaves out, on purpose

A record of what happened, nothing more.

• Anything you typed but never sent. The words you are typing are not stored, so there is no first draft or "before" version to print — only what was actually sent.
• Private drop-off times. If a parent privately records when a handover actually happened, that record stays theirs. It never appears in a shared pack.
• Photos. A photo attached to a note is listed, not printed. Under the court bundle rules, photographs generally stay out of a bundle (see below).
• Your family's documents and child details. Documents stored in the app, and each child's health and school information, are not part of the pack.
• Anything a parent can't see. A pack covers what the parent who made it can see. If that is less than the family's full record for the period, the pack says so, and counts what it leaves out.

✦ Has it been changed?

What a pack can tell you about itself.

There is no tool for checking a pack. What the pack itself gives you:

• The times on messages, notes and replies are stamped by ParentGlow's own server when it receives them; a parent doesn't type them in. (An expense's date is the date the parent says it was spent.)
• Messages, including those about a handover, can't be edited or deleted once sent. An expense can't be changed once the other parent has responded to it or anyone has commented on it, and every earlier change is kept.
• The cover's document reference is worked out from the records in the pack. Records that had been altered would not produce the same reference.

Where the authenticity of a document is disputed, the court has its own procedures, and it decides.

✦ The court bundle rules, in brief

How the rules in England and Wales treat a record like this.

The current version of Practice Direction 27A, in force since 2 March 2026, sets out what goes into a court bundle in family cases.

• A bundle should hold only the documents the court needs to read, or that will actually be referred to at the hearing (paragraph 5.2).
• Unless the court directs otherwise, it leaves out, among other things, correspondence; emails, texts, messaging-app and social media messages; voice notes; bank and other financial records; notes of contact visits; and photographs. Specific documents that are necessary for the court to read can still go in (paragraph 5.2).
• Those documents can't be brought back in by attaching them to a witness statement (paragraph 7.3(c)).
• An electronic bundle is limited to 350 pages unless the court gives permission (paragraph 11.2(b)).

So which pages of a pack, if any, reach a bundle is for the court's directions in each case. ParentGlow's pack is designed with those rules in mind: a searchable PDF, an index at the front, bookmarks for every section, and page numbers printed by the computer that match the PDF's own. It is not a finished bundle.

Parents representing themselves can use the judiciary's own guide to preparing court bundles, which Practice Direction 27A links to.

Practice Direction 27A applies in England and Wales. In Scotland, documents are lodged as productions under the sheriff's control; in Northern Ireland, nothing beyond what the rules require is filed without the court's leave. In every nation, the court's own directions decide.