Template

A free chronology template for child arrangements cases

Last reviewed 30 September 2026. England and Wales only. Written for parents, not lawyers. The rules cited are linked at the end so you can read them yourself.

What is a chronology, and why not hand over the whole diary?

A chronology is a list of events in date order. In a child arrangements case it usually means: what was supposed to happen on a given date, what did happen, and where that can be checked. It is a map of the record, not the record.

Since 2 March 2026, Practice Direction 27A, which governs family court bundles, has said that certain classes of document must not go in the bundle unless the court directs otherwise. “Notes of contact visits” are one of them (paragraph 5.2(e)), alongside copies of text and WhatsApp messages, recordings and photographs. The same paragraph still allows “specific documents which it is necessary for the court to read”. So a two-year diary is not what gets read. A short list of the dates that matter, drawn from it, is. Our guide to keeping a contact record covers the record itself; this page is about the list you draw out of it.

What do the rules say about a chronology?

Practice Direction 27A deals with chronologies in a few places. For a child arrangements case (anything other than public law or financial remedy proceedings):

• When there is one. The preliminary documents at the front of the bundle include “an agreed up-to-date chronology, if it is a final hearing or if the summary under (a) is insufficient” (paragraph 7.10(f)). The summary under (a) is the case summary of the background.
• How long each entry is. Each entry is “limited, if practicable, to one sentence and cross-referenced to the relevant page(s) in the bundle” (paragraph 7.10(f), and see paragraph 7.14 on cross-referencing).
• How long the whole thing is. No more than 10 pages (paragraph 8.1), unless the court has specifically directed otherwise.
• What goes on the front. Each preliminary document “must be as short and succinct as possible” and must state, below the heading, the date it was prepared and the date of the hearing it is for (paragraph 7.13).

The template follows those rules: a one-sentence “what happened” column, a reference column, and heading fields for the two dates.

How do you fill in each column?

1. No. Number the rows so you and anyone else can refer to them (“row 14”).
2. Date. The date of the event, with the day of the week if it helps (“Sat 14 Mar 2026”). Rows go in date order.
3. What was arranged. What the order or written agreement said for that date, with the times, and where it comes from: “Contact 10:00–17:00 (order of 3 Feb 2026, para 2)”. After the first row, “as above” is fine.
4. What happened. One sentence of plain fact, with actual times. What you saw yourself. If someone told you something, say who.
5. Source / ref. Where the fact can be checked: your diary entry for that day, for instance. When the bundle is paginated, add the page reference (bundles use a letter for the section and a number for the page, such as “C14”).

Fill in the heading on the first sheet: the case name or number, who prepared it, the date you prepared it, the hearing date, the child or children, and the period covered.

What does a good row look like?

Here is the worked example from the template. Every detail in it is invented.

Notice what the rows leave out: why the visit on the 14th was missed, whether anyone believed the reason, and how anyone felt. Row 2 would read very differently as “Cancelled AGAIN at the last minute, supposedly because A was ill”, and the difference is the difference between a record and an argument.

Notice also that rows 1 and 3 are visits that went ahead. Include those where they matter. A run of visits that happened on time is what gives a missed one its meaning, and a chronology that lists only the other parent’s failures reads as a case being built rather than a record being kept.

What should stay out of it?

• Events that do not bear on the issue. If the question is weekend contact, the midweek phone calls that went fine probably do not need rows of their own.
• Opinions and motives. Yours about the other parent, or theirs as you imagine them.
• Adjectives and scores. “Late” is a fact if you give the times. “Typically late” is a view.
• Quoted message threads. A row can say a message was received and when. The messages themselves are separately excluded from the bundle without a direction (paragraph 5.2(b)).
• Addresses. Name a place if it matters (“the contact centre”), not an address.

Who prepares the chronology that goes in the bundle?

In proceedings, the chronology in the bundle is meant to be a single document agreed between the parties. Where the parties disagree about its content, “the fact of their disagreement and their differing contentions must be set out at the appropriate places in the document” (paragraph 7.15). Usually the applicant takes the lead in preparing it; if the applicant has no lawyer and the other side does, the represented party takes the lead (paragraph 7.9).

So your own chronology may not be the one that goes into the bundle word for word. It is the careful working draft you bring to that process, and the backbone of your own statement. The more factual and neutral it already is, the less there is to disagree about.

The judiciary publishes a guide to preparing court bundles for people without a lawyer; Practice Direction 27A links to it in paragraph 1.1.

Sources

Checked against the documents below as they stood on 30 September 2026. Rules change; read the current version before relying on any of it.

1. Practice Direction 27A, Family Proceedings: Court Bundles, in force 2 March 2026. Paragraphs 1.1, 5.2, 7.9, 7.10(f), 7.13, 7.14, 7.15 and 8.1. justice.gov.uk
2. Judiciary of England and Wales, Preparing court bundles for family proceedings: guide for litigants in person. judiciary.uk