diff --git a/crates/core/src/datastream.rs b/crates/core/src/datastream.rs
index ea86b72..f251724 100644
--- a/crates/core/src/datastream.rs
+++ b/crates/core/src/datastream.rs
@@ -196,8 +196,17 @@ impl DataStream {
     }
 
     /// Return the schema of DataFrame that backs the DataStream
-    pub fn schema(&self) -> &DFSchema {
-        self.df.schema()
+    pub fn schema(&self) -> DFSchema {
+        let schema = self.df.schema().clone();
+
+        // Strip out internal metadata fields from the schema
+        let qualified_fields = schema
+            .iter()
+            .map(|(qualifier, field)| (qualifier.cloned(), field.clone()))
+            .filter(|(_qualifier, field)| *field.name() != "_streaming_internal_metadata")
+            .collect::<Vec<_>>();
+
+        DFSchema::new_with_metadata(qualified_fields, schema.metadata().clone()).unwrap()
     }
 
     /// Prints the schema of the underlying dataframe
diff --git a/py-denormalized/python/denormalized/data_stream.py b/py-denormalized/python/denormalized/data_stream.py
index c7329eb..f2c2d1c 100644
--- a/py-denormalized/python/denormalized/data_stream.py
+++ b/py-denormalized/python/denormalized/data_stream.py
@@ -47,8 +47,7 @@ def schema(self) -> pa.Schema:
         Returns:
             pa.Schema: The PyArrow schema describing the structure of the data
         """
-        schema = self.ds.schema()
-        return schema.remove(schema.get_field_index("_streaming_internal_metadata"))
+        return self.ds.schema()
 
     def select(self, expr_list: list[Expr]) -> "DataStream":
         """Select specific columns or expressions from the DataStream.
diff --git a/py-denormalized/src/datastream.rs b/py-denormalized/src/datastream.rs
index c3b712f..dce9188 100644
--- a/py-denormalized/src/datastream.rs
+++ b/py-denormalized/src/datastream.rs
@@ -4,8 +4,7 @@ use futures::StreamExt;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 use std::time::Duration;
 
-use tokio::task::JoinHandle;
-
+use core::ops::Index;
 use datafusion::arrow::datatypes::Schema;
 use datafusion::arrow::pyarrow::PyArrowType;
 use datafusion::arrow::pyarrow::ToPyArrow;
@@ -13,6 +12,7 @@ use datafusion::common::JoinType;
 use datafusion::execution::SendableRecordBatchStream;
 use datafusion::physical_plan::display::DisplayableExecutionPlan;
 use datafusion_python::expr::{join::PyJoinType, PyExpr};
+use tokio::task::JoinHandle;
 
 use denormalized::datastream::DataStream;
 
@@ -242,8 +242,12 @@ impl PyDataStream {
                         match message.transpose() {
                             Ok(Some(batch)) => {
                                 Python::with_gil(|py| -> PyResult<()> {
-                                    let batch = batch.clone().to_pyarrow(py)?;
-                                    func.call1(py, (batch,))?;
+                                    let mut batch = batch.clone();
+                                    if let Ok(col_idx) = batch.schema_ref().index_of("_streaming_internal_metadata") {
+                                        batch.remove_column(col_idx);
+                                    }
+
+                                    func.call1(py, (batch.to_pyarrow(py)?,))?;
                                     Ok(())
                                 })?;
                             },